Broad-Based Search Engine Web 2.0 Alternatives.

Will Google Search be challenged by this rapid ‘Vertical’ growth?

A search engine is basically just software hosted by a site that provides a list of ‘documents’ or ‘pages’ in response to a keyword query.

Businesses, researchers and consumers use the search engines for a variety of reasons. Search engines like Yahoo and Google are used for an all encompassing general search but more often surfers are looking for a search that is more specific to their unique needs.

Search Engines that cater to a specific ‘niche’ are not new. Websites that help people to find what they are looking for specifically, whether it is to look for shops, to find people, or resource businesses have been around for years. In the past few years however there has been a steep increase in the number and popularity of these ‘niche’ search sites.

Enter the ‘Vertical Search Engine’. A vertical search engine is basically a destination or a ‘Portal’ site. Vertical Search Engines offer to businesses and enthusiasts what the big players can only deliver with complex keyword combinations. That is relevant and essential content versus millions of sites results filled with vague information.

So to answer the question, “Will Google Search be challenged by this rapid ‘Vertical’ growth?” The answer is Yes, it is quite likely when it comes to specialized ‘niche’ areas Google and other broad-based search engine sites such as Yahoo and MSN will feel the competition. Their user base will continue to be chipped away by the increasingly popular targeted vertical search engines.

What Specifically is the difference between a ‘Vertical Search Engine’ and a ‘Broad-Based Search Engine’?

A broad-based search engine sends out ‘web crawlers’ better known as ’spiders’ to fetch a very large number of documents. A program called an indexer then reads these documents and creates a search index based upon the text contained in each site specifically. All search engines have their own set of criteria or more technically an algorithm to create indexes of the categories of the keywords found in the text. This way in a perfect world only ideal meaningful specific results would be returned.

Whereas vertical search engines only ’spider’ a very refined database. There indexes then contain only information relating to a specific topic which will reach a highly targeted and focused audience. Examples of businesses that use vertical search engines are real

Tags: Vertical Search Engine