VERTICAL SEARCH ENGINES: WILL FOCUS PAY OFF FOR WEB AND INTRANET INDEXING SERVICES?

摘要

The search-and-retrieval space is highly fragmented. Will focus pay off for Web and Intranet indexing services? In the 1980s, commercial database producers hyped their products with claims such as "more than 1,000 journals indexed and abstracted" or "the full text of more than 650 journals and magazines." The Web search utilities have fallen prey to puff marketing in a quest for sustainable revenue. The size of the Web and the intense competition for users is creating niche search opportunities. Examples may be found in magazines that use humans to build pointers to useful sites (Business 2.0), start ups with administrative interfaces that allow a particular topic or subject to be indexed (Mohomine, Pinpoint, and EoExchange). The large search utilities (Inktomi and FAST) offer subset services as well. Niche search engines are available for consumer health, government services, and hundreds of other topics. The result is a fragmentation of indices and collections. The average user returns to point-and-click directories and creates a ready market for clever, powerful, metacrawler services (Ixquick, X-Portal, and Prompt Software, among others). The emergence of blended search services, plug-and-play search, built-in search, and many other variations underscores three trends: [1] proliferation of search options because no search service meets the needs of a complex, linguistically rich user community; [2] exotic, next- generation search services fit highly specialized market spaces and will slowly make their way down market; and [3] hybrid services combining directories, spider-generated hits, popularity algorithms, and metacrawler features will have a greater impact in the months ahead. Search and retrieval remains a business opportunity of considerable magnitude.