A
recent article in the Economist examined the promising future of vertical
search and proposed three possible fates for vertical search sites. The article
did not, however, suggest what factors will lead to victory or failure. Having
worked closely with successful vertical search providers worldwide, here’s my
take:
Fate #1: The
strongest vertical search provider will dominate specific industry categories
Take
healthcare verticals. Here is a well defined niche of search that is already
showing some front runners like SearchMedica
for instance. The victor will ultimately become the household name when it
comes to online health research. What will make a vertical search site strong?
Certainly grabbing early mindshare and getting a lengthy head start on
competitors. The winner will have momentum and traction through quality,
focused results with social capabilities and the stickiness of community
features. But there are extremely few
vertical search sites that can build a loyal audience entirely from scratch
merely by snagging search traffic from Google and Yahoo.
Strength
is a pre-requisite to vertical search success, not a by-product of it. That’s
why publishers are the clear challengers to Google.
They have
pre-existing loyal audiences that can be led to a vertical search site.
They are
already trusted names within their communities.
They have
the advertising relationships to monetize vertical search.
They
cannot be easily acquired by technology companies.
Fate #2: The weakest
may be picked off by pseudo-specialist features added to generalist
search-engines
The new
hybrids purporting to be vertical but in reality trying to generate broad
readership are the wildcard here. This will be especially true of vertical
search sites that cater to lucrative consumer markets, such as the healthcare
example above. These sites won’t survive battles with search engine giants for
consumer attention and advertising dollars. The winning recipe is to focus on
one thing and do it well. Then the high
value demographic will come.
Conversely,
vertical search sites that target specialized professional communities will
likely go untouched by the search giants because they command small, defined
portions of the market.
Fate #3: Specialist
sites will be offered under a bigger brand's umbrella
Again,
without brand recognition and a pre-existing audience, vertical search faces
nearly impossible odds. The big roll-up. Search results may be flawless but
investor money will burn much faster than traffic builds on the site.
Publishers can follow this path as well—owning several vertical search sites
based on their numerous authoritative titles.
The aggregation across numerous, focused, niche properties is a very
compelling business proposition. That
ability to both aggregate large volumes of eyes yet retain the high demographic
of niche search are the earmarks of our winner.