WebProNews

The San Francisco Chronicle takes a look at the recent flurry of new search engines catering to specific vertical markets.

Link: The San Francisco Chronicle

There are now search engines for just about every popular vertical; travel, jobs, shopping, auto's etc. While I can see the attraction - wanting to get a piece of the billions being spent on search - it's going to be a tough road for any vertical that doesn't have either the "hip" factor or a large advertising budget. I am continuingly surrounded by different search engines and I have plenty of trouble remembering "that hot new search engine for ....". Searchers like convenience and the average searcher will likely stay with one of the big four.

That being said, there are a couple of new vertical search engines that I think will go the distance.

Answers.com - they have the partnership with Google and their results are logical and easy to navigate.
Oodle.com - great name, great idea. You'll no longer waste time trying to search thru all the classifieds.

Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world's most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.