A B2B survey of media and Internet professionals titled “Vertical Search Report 2008” was recently released by E-consultancy, an online publisher of Internet marketing reports and research, and Convera, a company that customizes specialized search functions for publisher web sites.

Time-challenged web publishers in various commercial and industry segments provided their insights on staying on top of business information, getting the most useful business information quickly and staying up-to-date.

·        Go Vertical for Search Needs.  Search engines and databases that specialize in a business or interest segment bypass more generalized search engines, such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Live Search. Information overload has fragmented even the general search engines into special-focus verticals that are consumer targeted, such as in travel (Hotels.com, Expedia), used vehicles (Autotrader) and books, electronics, entertainment (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble Online).

But it’s the time-challenged business user who needs to find specialized and relevant information as quickly as possible to find the trend shifts affecting their industries and to focus their advertising, marketing and sales efforts to the most targeted potential buyers and sellers.

Specialized, niche-targeted vertical search sites are the fastest path to the busy business searcher’s goals. Piper Jaffray Investment Research dubbed verticals the new “golden portals” of online search, because of their rapid growth in meeting specialized searchers’ needs.

As noted in Vertical Search Report 2008, 93% of those surveyed said they would be “very” or “quite likely” to use a search engine that focused on their specific business and workplace needs. More than half (53%) listed faster access to desired information as a major benefit of vertical search; half cited “focus on their business interests and workflow” as a major advantage.

·        Pull Niche-Targeted Trend Data. General business publications, like general and consumer-centric major search engines, lack the granular data and trend tracking of a vertical search engine and industry-specific search site.

Professionals who need summaries and data on trends specific to their industries turn to specialized professional publications and, if they offer the feature, an affiliated search site. For example, engineers turn to GlobalSpec; science researchers turn to Scirus and healthcare professionals turn to SearchMedica.

Media and marketing trends watchers turn to professional tracking sites, such as Nielsen/Net Ratings and Google Trend Alerts. 

Online retailers turn to Nielsen Business Media, Internet Retailer and Retail Industry.com. Wholesalers of apparel, footwear, jewelry, accessories and general merchandise connect to buyers and sellers through this site (TopTenWholesale.com) and its affiliate search sites, OffPriceNetwork.com, Wholezilla.com and WholesaleU.com.

Check the new trend index for wholesale products at www.TopTenWholesaleTrends.com. Top Ten Trends Wholesale Index displays search demands over any date range entered by wholesale buyers and sellers employing Top Ten Wholesale’s vertical search, auction and advertising networks. Get a graphic snapshot of the most demanded search terms, products and categories … as it happens.

·        Use Industry-Specific Feeds.  The Vertical Search Report 2008 — surveying publishers, advertisers, marketers and financial service providers in what Convera labeled an “early adopter audience” – noted a high level of awareness about industry and sector-specific knowledge feeds. Such feeds include RSS – Real Simple Syndication – customized news feeds to which a business professional can subscribe at industry or vertical search sites. RSS feeds automatically serve latest news and commentary on preferred topics.

Another automated way to get important business information is through desktop widgets, a custom tool that serves alerts, trends and business info with vertical search functions.

The option of customizing a user home page lets busy professionals assemble top-level home page access to most used web sites and resources.

Convera and E-consulting concluded 90% of their survey respondents knew about the automatic and specialized knowledge feeds noted above. Up to 90% received custom RSS industry feeds; over 56% used customized home pages; and over 48% used desktop widgets or tools available from industry sites.