The Future of Vertical Search ASIDIC Fall Meeting September 11, 2006

Really Strategies, Inc. © What is Vertical Search Anyway?  Is it about traffic?  Is it about advertising?  Is it about content?  Is it about finding something quicker?  Is it about stuff?

Really Strategies, Inc. © One Person’s Quest to Find a Definition  “Please tell me that I am not the only person vexed by the term vertical search? Did I lose touch? Has the blogosphere passed me by? Did Web 2.0 ruin my brain?”vertical search  WebWord Blog – John S. Rhoads  ”So what is vertical search? It is a specialized search engine that mines data for one narrow niche of the market place. Say jobs or travel. Or even high end real estate. Because the data sources are so fragmented, there seems to be an opportunity to massage the data and present it in a manner that is simple to use and easy to consume. Sort of meta search for niches.”

Really Strategies, Inc. © Favorite Simple Vertical Search Definition It is search focused on a specific vertical. (We can all go home now)

Really Strategies, Inc. © Some Quotes on Vertical Search  "The challenge for vertical search engines is to first let people know they're out there in a world where so much attention is put on one or two companies"  “This type of content verticalization improves advertising results, too.”  “Vertical search engines often include "deep Web" information, such as documents in specialized databases.”  "Advertising on vertical search engines is all about fishing where the fish are.”

Really Strategies, Inc. © The Vertical Search Opportunity  Vertical search hasn't escaped the radar of Google, Yahoo and the other leaders in general Web search. They all let users search through local business directories and provide driving directions and maps. Some have job engines. Others provide different levels of multimedia content search. But these search engines aren't generally considered to go deep enough into specific areas, which is where others are finding the opportunity.

Really Strategies, Inc. © The Future of Vertical Search Panelists  Jeffrey Dearth, CEO, VerticalSearch.com  Howard Ko, CEO Infocious  Julian Steinberg, Inform.com