A lot of notable writers are touting 2008 as the year Vertical Search Engines really hit the mainstream. I'm a believer otherwise I wouldn't be working on a vertical search platform.
Here's some of the posts from the last couple of days;
From AltSearchEngines - 75 per cent of online publishers see vertical search as way to reclaim online community from Google
"Nearly three quarters of online publishers see the benefit of developing vertical search engines as a way to claw back online communities from Google, a study published last month has claimed."
From John Battelle's Blog - Blekko
"The web is big. Really, really big. It's literally billions and billions of pages. It's Carl Sagan big. And it's doubling in size every year or two.So the idea that what you can see in positions 1-3 above the fold on Google are the sum of what the web has to say about every possible query is crazy.
And yet they have 85%+ market share, and little effective competition. At the same time there is such a fabulous business in search. It's the highest monetization service on the web, by far."
From SearchEngineLand - The Google Challengers: 2008 Edition
"And The Winner Is...If you think the future of search is on smart automation, Cuill's definitely one to watch, and perhaps Blekko as well. If you think it's the growth of humans, Mahalo and Search Wikia are your better candidates. The reality is that success will likely be a blend of the two"
From AltSearchEngines - Is Google Invincible?
"Vertical Ad Networks are gaining momentum and this could be a potential danger for Google’s AdSense, today over 35% of revenue. Google, however, has the cash to acquire some key players to claim its own share of the vertical ad network pie."
Marc - great question. Search has niched up the Web in ways never before affordable to advertisers. Social media's taken it to even new heights. Yet, vertical search hasn't made the leap (yet). It has to at some point - but that may just mean doing it within a modified global search framework supplied by Google, Yahoo, Live, or someone else.