Centrro Launches Personal Financial Search Engine

Centrro.com announced the launch of its vertical search engine, targeting the personal finance industry which includes mortgages, credit cards, and other loan products.

The search and "what if" tool allows consumers to see what they're most likely qualified for, even before they apply. This is designed to benefit not only consumers but also lenders by reducing the number of declined applications and their associated processing costs.

Eurekster's Platform Will Be Used By Forbes

Eurekster technology will be used to allow Forbes to build vertical search engines out of their content.

A statement from Eurekster noted its service powers a tab called "web" on the Forbes.com home page and on the search results page that offers Web search results specialized for users using Eurekster's technology.

Eventually, Forbes could use the Swicki technology to build more focused vertical search options from its content.
http://www.webpronews.com/financial/news/wpn-64-20060823EureksterSweepsUpForbesDeal.html

Google Homepage Needs Improvement

From ZDNet:

Google…falls short in a key area of homepage search usability: direct to vertical search from the homepage.

Vertical search is key…for..future growth. Vertical search users may be considered more ‘qualified‘ leads than general search users and ads on vertical SERPs, therefore, may command higher rates…

At the Google homepage, two of the five featured vertical search options are launched directly via a single click on a vertical tab: news and maps. Searches from the homepage for the other three verticals featured, however, lead to the specific vertical's homepage for initiation of a specialized search.

Google’s reorganization of its vertical “tabs” on the homepage has not served to improve Google’s direct to vertical search from the homepage.

Following the reorganization, two of the four featured Google vertical search options are launched directly via a single click on a vertical tab: News and Maps. Searches from the homepage for the other two verticals featured, Images and Video, however, lead to the specific vertical's homepage for a subsequent initiation of a specialized search.
Perhaps Google’s next homepage “revision” will aim to enhance direct to vertical search usability.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/index.php?p=333

Vertical Search - The Ideal Customer Entry Point for Marketers

There's hardly a doubt that the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com, as well as the new upstart engines, will become more specialized in their efforts to help advertisers more directly target a particular segment of the marketplace.

Google has launched vertical engines targeting health, finance and local to extend more effectively its reach and targeting of paid search ads to users. Yahoo also has its own vertically focused engines that specialize in health, shopping, real estate, travel and career search. And MSN, with its adCenter platform, invariably will get in the vertical game with its own targeted set of vertical sites. However, the engines will need to hedge their bets on which verticals will draw the most traffic in efforts to help them sell targeted paid ads.

Verticals like travel, finance, home living and health, appear to be leading the way in attracting hoards of searchers. And paid search advertisers will have to be careful not go all in with their search marketing dollars betting on singular success with the verticals.

Search Engines - Friend or Foe

Jakob Nielsen wrote an article called “Search Engine as Leeches on the Web”. He talks about how search engines extract too much of the web’s value, leaving too little for the websites that actually create the content. He shows an eye tracking study, where the user is creating for information about LaGuardia in which the airport was named after.

His point is that the search engine is taking the content from the website and displaying it on the search results page. The search engine didn’t create this content or pay for it, and they are displaying the content. There are too many free services being created just to drive traffic to the search engines. He says that search engines are becoming answer engines.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/search_engines.html

News Corp. and Google Sign Search Deal

NEWS Corporation's online US arm has selected Google as MySpace.com's search system in a search and advertising deal that also covers other websites. the company said overnight.

The deal ends months of speculation about which big search company, also including Yahoo and Microsoft, would provide the service to News Corp's Fox Interactive Media, which houses the company's US websites.

As part of the deal, Google is expected to pay Fox at least $US900 million ($1.18 billion) in revenue share payments based on certain traffic and other commitments promised by Fox. These payments are expected to be made from the first quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2010.The agreement calls for Google to power web, vertical and site specific search for MySpace.com and the majority of Fox Interactive's websites.

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,20056163-462,00.html

Optimism Grows in Fighting Click Fraud

Marc Barach, chief marketing officer of Ingenio, San Francisco commented on click fraud to DMNews.
"The continuing focus on click fraud creates an industry mood of cautious optimism", Mr. Barach said. "Major players have done well in offering new data and processes to help advertisers understand and deal with fraud risk."

"While click fraud will never be completely eliminated, the industry is now poised to build a stronger relationship with advertisers who foster trust and confidence -- a critical step in strengthening the overall market," he said. "Being direct, honest and transparent is the way to accomplish this, and that's the direction our industry is headed in."

http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/search-marketing/37755.html

IT Vertical Search Engine

PromoPipeline has announced the launch of a vertical search engine that enables channel partners to search for promotions from IT vendors and distributors without logging into multiple websites.

The company says that PromoPipeline supports promotions search by categories, dates, SKUs or other relevant information to quickly find numerous vendor and distributor promotional offerings. Search results can be book-marked, printed or emailed to clients.

http://www.promopipeline.com/

Microsoft to Launch Live QnA Beta

Coming soon to customers in the United States is the Windows Live QnA beta, a new vertical search experience designed to help people find the information they are looking for by allowing them to ask and answer questions from an online community on a given topic.

Consumers will be able to tap into the power of the online community to search for answers on a variety of subject areas and topics including business, health, arts, sports, technology and more. Those interested can learn more and sign up for the beta at http://qna.live.com .