On May 16 Google started to roll out it's "Universal Search" system which aggregates results from across many of Google's properties including images, video, news, blogs etc. And while the general public is just starting to see universal search show up on their searches, industry insiders have been able to see some of what Google has been up to on a public but not very publicized web site Searchmash.
As soon as Google rolled out the new service some analysts were saying that this could spell the doom of the vertical search market. Blogs posting title's from some prominent blogs were provocative like these: Google Universal Search - is Vertical Search Space Finished? and Will Universal Search Mean Universal Domination?
So is the vertical search market doomed? No, and in a word here's why, innovation.
Google's Dominance
There is no doubt that Google is the leader in consumer search. And in rolling out their universal search system I actually think they will see their market share increase in the short term. I might also add that Google ad revenue will go up because of this as well.
Eric Enge at Search Engine Watch is absolutely dead on with his assessment that many people stick to the main Google search and historically have not tried their other search products for video, image, local etc. With universal search this will change. Even so vertical search engines will thrive.
Innovation
The vertical search engine market is booming right now. Recently Charles Knight wrote a good article on the top 100 alternate search engines. He classified them into the following category of innovations; The Search Homepage, Artificial Intelligence, Clustering Engines, Recommendation Search Engines, Metasearch Engines and others. He states that after you look at the main search engines which comprise 99.99% of the market and look at the alternate search engines that he has;
... discovered that in that .01% lies a vast multitude of the most innovative and creative search engines you have never seen.
And therein lies the truth. And while Google dominates and does innovate they do not have a monopoly on innovation. And it's those innovations that can set vertical search engines apart from Google and make them valuable. So the vertical search market is far from dead. There was a time when Yahoo was king of the hill but along came a small search engine called Google. Will Google be dethroned any time soon? No, but is there a market for innovative vertical search engines? You bet. Of course there's nothing stopping Google from acquiring some of those vertical search engines and their innovations. And in fact we're already starting to see that, but not just with Google, but Yahoo and Microsoft as well.
Project Phoenix
So this brings me to Project Phoenix. As I've said before in another post, Project Phoenix is the rebirth of my interest in developing a vertical search platform with some innovations that will make my new company stand out from the crowd. As I move forward on this project I'll keep my audience informed as to the thought process that goes into our development and innovation process while keeping the trade secrets to ourselves.
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