Complimentary, Not Competitive   

Distinguishing between various makes of search engines these days requires more than just a casual knowledge of search technology. With so much focus on the big search players and their related search advertising, it can seem that there exists just one important type of search: Web search. Familiarizing yourself with the benefits of other search technologies such as vertical site search will help you get the most out of your searches, your customer relationships and your advertising dollars.

One of our company’s most commonly asked questions is: Do you compete with Google? Our answer is always, “No”. Google or other Web search engines and vertical search are complimentary. Here’s why.

Google is a Web search engine. Familiar examples of Web search engines include www.google.com, www.yahoo.com or www.msn.com. Users of Web search engines type a search phrase into the search box and receive a list of Web sites that are most likely to answer the searcher’s query. The list of Web sites usually numbers in the thousands and beyond. Web search gives the user a wide range of choices, from more relevant matches to broad listings that don’t always correlate to the searcher’s intentions.

Web search engines are the beginning of a search experience and not an end of themselves. People search because they’re looking for the right destination Web site and it is at those destination sites that users spend the majority of their time online.

Destination sites are usually vertical in nature; they are specific to the query as opposed to being general, multi-topical portals These vertical sites provide large amounts of content for a niche category, such as law, medicine, shopping, home improvement, travel, real estate, business, and so on. Examples of vertical sites include www.business.com, www.hometime.com and www.webmd.com.

Vertical search companies provide search engines to these vertical sites. Just as Internet users locate a vertical destination site through a Web search engine, the majority of those users will try to use search again at the destination site to pinpoint their reason for visiting the site.

Vertical search technology provides the visitor with instant access to everything the site has to offer, making the site more relevant, useful and efficient for the visitor. Good vertical search also gathers statistical information and behavioral data that helps the vertical site more effectively answer visitor needs.

Web search doesn’t compete with vertical site search. The two compliment each other. Web search directs traffic to vertical sites, where vertical search engines complete the search journey for the user.