Vertical Search: The Vertical Solution in Search Service

The phrases horizontal solution and vertical solution are fairly common among our friends in the field of Dynamics Ax. Do you know there is an equivalent in the Search Service Industry?

We have seen enterprise increasing interest in vertical solutions. Vertical solutions are supposed to fit their needs better. Less effort is expected to gain result.

In the search service industry, there is a similar trend emerging too. It is called vertical search. More and more such services are emerging in the World Wide Web. Are there really demands for such service?

Generic Search

When we talk about search engine, Google, Yahoo and Live.com naturally come across our mind. There are a lot of search engines on the Internet but these three are the most dominant. They account for more than 90% of search traffic.

These are horizontal search engines. Searches are performed across all domains. You use keywords to delimit your search result in order to increase its accuracy. If we want to find out how to configure warehouse in Dynamics Ax for example, we have to include both the phrases Dynamics Ax and warehouse configuration. Otherwise we might get warehouse configuration for other software system instead.

Vertical Search

Have you ever thought of searching the Internet with the keyword “configure warehouse” and you see only results in Dynamics Ax? On top of that, the search result is formatted in a way that is meaningful to the domain. The users would be able to focus on their objectives and browse results in the most convenient manner.

This is what vertical search tries to address from my point of view. In more general term, vertical search scoped the search in very specific area or niche, promising pin-point accurate result for your search and has the result layout in a manner that improves user experience (user friendly in software term).

User Experience

Being focused in one area enables the site to be designed in a more “intelligent” manner. We could have categorization relevant to the target field. We could even see the use of industry specific terms that could be confusing when used in a general site.

Sample Vertical Search Services

The following are a few vertical search services. Maybe you could give them a try and let everyone know if vertical search is for you.

1. Google image search searches only image and format the result with thumbnail preview capability.

2. IT.com provides result for Information Technology Solution.

3. retrevo focuses on consumer electronics.

4. ThomasNet targets the manufacturing goods and services.

5. Top Ten Wholesale provides search for wholesaler by merchandize.

Commercial Motivation

Some might be running such service for experiment or even as interest. However, there must be commercial motivation to support their existence and nurture them for prime time.

At first look, I see such service offering targeted advertising. Being highly targeted means less user is fine. Conversion rate would naturally be higher because you are supposedly talking to the right people.

Having said so, adoption is still an important factor. You may claim to have quality users producing extra high conversion rate but conversion rate is a percentage. 100% of one equals to 1% of 100. I am sure you sure you could do the math here.

The thing here is you should expect much less people using each of such service because they are vertical. They are created to serve only a portion of the Internet community.

Final Thoughts

Will you use the vertical search if there is one in your area of interest or work? I personally would wish a really wide coverage of my search result. I like the accuracy vertical search could offer but at the same time I would wonder if I am presented with all the information out there.