Vertical Search Engine

[paul]

Though vertical search engine is not new but it is emerging out with new concept to address the niche and professions more closely, what you feel about it? Does it going to help B2B markets with specialized interest?
Visit : imediaconnection.com/content/12288.asp

[voodoomike]

I'm part of a company that publishes niche B2B vertical search engines. So far we're in beta with our first live site, which covers the UK PR industry ( thewebstoobig.com/pr). However, to date the feedback we have received has been extraordinary, both from site users (i.e. people looking for PR), and from the PR industry itself.

Our vertical search engine is very specialised, so there's no point trying to push it to people - you either need it or you don't. However, as part of this mythical "vertical search boom" that we keep hearing about, we're finding one thing keeps coming up. Most of the new vertical search engines cover consumer business - travel, health, property, that sort of thing. However, in a lot of cases, the web has become SO big now that even the first level narrowing that these consumer engines are performing still produces a bewildering array of search results. What we're finding is that - to become a truly useful vertical search engine - your vertical has to be extremely tightly focused, to avoid the problem of simply having millions instead of billions of pages to index. In our case, our search engine crawls UK PR agency websites, which amounts to between 1,500 and 2,000 websites in total.

[kev woodman]

That's really interesting stuff Mike - thanks. Amidst all the hype it's always nice to hear from someone who is at the coal face.

[voodoomike]

Paul - at the risk of appearing to self-promote, we have a company blog that we use to blog all manner of information regarding search engines and vertical search in particular. If you're interested in this area, then you might find our blog interesting too (if only for its links to other sites of interest) - we try very hard to keep the blog down-to-earth and free from the self-marketing navel-contemplation that many corporate blogs seem so interested in.

[Administrator]

Mike,

Outbound link has been removed from your post.

[kev woodman]

Just curious Admin but why was the link removed from Mike's post?

[Administrator]

If we allow someone to post outbound links in every post then others will be encouraged to do the same thing. Visitors who come to our forum for knowledge and information wont feel good to stay on the forum if they see all members spamming this forum.

1 link was allowed to mike in his first post but that encouraged him to put more. Links from old members is fine new members cannot be allowed to do so as there are many others waiting outside to get an opportunity.

[kev woodman]

Aah I see, thanks.

[voodoomike]

Admin - I only posted the link because Kev seemed interested in this topic, and I thought it might be helpful. Sorry if I broke any forum rules in doing so.

Kev - if you are interested in reading our blog, it's easily accessible from our company site, or give me a shout and I'll send you the address.

[kev woodman]

I did have a look Mike - and it was interesting thanks.