Vertical search-engines

Know your subject

Jul 12th 2007
From The Economist print edition

Topic-specific search-engines hope to challenge Google, at least in some areas

ARE you a generalist or a specialist? The question can be asked of people, but it is increasingly being asked about internet search-engines, as specialist or “vertical” sites take on generalists such as Yahoo! and Google. Some are already prospering: GlobalSpec.com, for example, a profitable search-engine for engineers, has 3.5m registered users and signs up another 20,000 each week. “They own that market,” says Charlene Li of Forrester, a consultancy.

This is due in large part to GlobalSpec's definable customer base. Its knowledge about the needs of its users sets it apart from the generalist search-engines, says Angela Hribar of GlobalSpec. Vertical sites, which serve up search results from a carefully selected group of topic-specific websites, can also target advertising at particular audiences more precisely...

The BBC, via the Creative Archive License Group is temporarily opening its news archives to the U.K. public, specifically for people to access, remix, podcast and otherwise subject the content to creative repurposing. Some restrictions apply, for example, the content may not be used for commercial purposes, and anything created using the content must, itself, be released under the Creative Archive License.  The following online story, published by Digital Music News reveals some of the details.

The big content providers are finally waking up to the vast creative potentials of their vaults (even if it doesn't bring them direct and immediate revenues).  It's a good thing to remember that the output of one process is simply the input to another; fodder for the next step.  What's considered a final product at one stage of the creative process may simply be a starting point for the next.  Pass it on....