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ABM wrestles with vertical search.Navigation: Main page Author: Booker, Ellis1Callahan, SeanShwartz, Matthew
Attendees debate details of how to best use search and how to monetize it VERTICAL SEARCH was clearly the hot topic at this week's ABM's Top Management Meeting in Chicago, as publishers pondered how best to use their industry knowledge to create tailored search domains for their markets. There seemed to be a consensus that vertical search represents a significant opportunity, giving b-to-b media companies a way to compete with the general-purpose search engines-such as Google and Yahoo-for search advertising dollars. Two months ago, in fact, ABM created a search committee, chaired by James Casella, vice chairman of Reed Business. "We're beyond 'Google-friend or enemy?' '' Mr. Casella said, referring to the ongoing debate about whether major search engines are taking online advertising revenue away from media companies. "Now, it's how to use search and how to monetize it.'' He said the goal of the committee was to "open up the membership's eyes to search.'' At the session "Vertical Search: Is This the Next Big Revenue Opportunity?'' Mike DeLuca, director of business development at Advanstar Communications, told how his company had created two vertical engines-one for dentists and the other for veterinarians-offering advertisers exclusive sponsorship of categories, as well as keyword advertising. LET THEM INDEXSearchChannel President Bill Furlong, however, does not advise shutting out search engines like Google totally. "Let them index your content-but only to a point,'' he said. He also challenged the audience to make investments in vertical search infrastructure. "If you don't do it, someone else will.'' Chuck Richard, VP and lead analyst at consultancy Outsell, agreed there was a need for vertical search and that publishers were well-positioned. He pointed to statistics showing that users were "frustrated'' with general-purpose search engines and were somewhat less reliant on these engines than they were five years ago. But Mr. Richard also cautioned that vertical search was only part of the mix. "Search and browsing will play a diminished role as the Web evolves to a publish-and-subscribe model,'' he said, as users increasingly rely on technologies such as RSS subscriptions to aggregate content. The so-called Web 2.0 will "nibble away'' at the vertical search opportunity over the next two to three years, he said. Mr. Richard maintained that despite Google's technical prowess, publishers have a good platform for vertical products. "Vertical search is about applying your rich industry domain expertise, not just spidering Web sites,'' he said. The Net, in fact, dominated discussion at the meeting, with print products now virtually an afterthought for the 280 business-media attendees. Contributing: Sean Callahan, Matthew Schwartz PHOTO (COLOR): CASELLA ~~~~~~~~ By Ellis Booker Contributing: Sean Callahan and Matthew Shwartz Ellis Booker is editor of BtoB in the Fair Use guidelines of the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act. info [at] singlearticles.com Powered by CommonSense |
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