VerticalSearch.net

While there are lots of search verticals, I think the three that I’ve chosen to focus on - Shopping, Travel, and Jobs - share four common traits which will become a main theme of discussion on VerticalSearch.net:

1. Challenges in customer acquisition and building loyalty
2. Reliance on datafeeds and scraping
3. Highly converting distribution channels
4. Real benefits for consumers

My thoughts on #1 are below. I’ll hit on #2, #3, and #4 in future posts.

Challenges in customer acquisition and building a loyalty lead to serious discussions about the viability of vertical search to really take off (intended). While shopping comparison engines have succeeded, travel search engines and job search engines are basically being laughed at by the entrenched players. Could be out of fear, but they do have a point; adoption of these services isn’t anything to shout about today and just as with shopping search engines, the travel and job search engines are going to have to spend a lot of money on pay per click services like Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing to gain an audience.

The vertical search engines also have to build out a lot more content to show up in organic listings. Right now sites like Kayak and SimplyHired are not full of compelling, original content about travel destinations or job functions. This will have to change. I’d recommend that all the companies hire in-house editors if they don’t already have them. You can see the seeds of this content on Mobissimo’s blog, SideStep’sPopular Cities links, and SimplyHired’s blog, but none of these examples are optimized for the search engines. [Yes, I think everyone is looking for good SEO people.] Indeed is in a particularly favorable position here as it can probably re-purpose NYTimes content.

Partnerships become important. Mobissimo has hinted at a couple big partnerships which haven’t been officially announced. SideStep is working with Amazon…although I heard (no confirmation) the pricetag for the partnership was about $1m - a pricey proposition for a travel category which is not really being pushed by Amazon. Kayak is powering About and AOL. Indeed is powering part of the NYTimes job section (although not prominently featured even though the NYTimes has an ownership stake). Just as the shopping comparison engines, especially PriceGrabber, have built valuable long term relationships, the travel and job search engines will have to do the same.

PR has been great for all of these guys, but the message hasn’t gotten out yet; I’ve heard Rob Solomon mention a couple times that when he was looking at SideStep’s CEO position he asked around and it seemed that only 1 in 100 people knew about the company. Yes, big and little hits will continue, but I think these guys have to do something guerilla-esque and buzzworthy like Half.com did with its renaming of Halfway, Oregon. Mark Hughes at BuzzMarketing is one person to talk to about this. I’m not saying that BUZZ is the answer, but people seem to love vertical search once they experience it and tell their friends about it, so creative, buzzworthy strategies could be a good move. These guys should be irreverant and disruptive just like the services they are creating.

Then there’s branding. Kayak hired the former CMO of Vonage. This guy will spend money to build the travel search industry and everyone will benefit. Will someone step up with job search?

Ok, so you’ve done some PPC, SEO, PR, Buzz…add to that standards like email, affiliate programs, lead generation, co-registration, and hopefully these companies are now driving some serious traffic. So what about loyalty? The problem the shopping comparison engines (ok, everyone) is running into is that everyone and their grandmother starts at Google and Yahoo!, and I don’t think anyone got into vertical search to play the click arbitrage game. The toolbar from SideStep was a boon for the company, and I think the company should definitely re-visit the product. Kayak has implemented some cool features. Mobissimo, too. SimplyHired and Indeed are much more than just job search engines and are working on account features and tools to make the experience more sticky. Job and Travel Search companies have to be carefuly not to poke fun at the establishment (without the establishment, the verticals couldn’t exist), but at the same time should take full advantage of their own scrappy nature by continuing to test innovative features and tools.

But features and tools aren’t going to make these services orders of magnitude better than the OTAs or job boards. Maybe an order of magnitude isn’t possible, but I think that’s the mindset these guys need to really disrupt the status quo. As Ray Bradbury wrote in Farenheit 451: ‘Stuff your eyes with wonder,’ he said, ‘live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that,’ he said, ’shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.’ (see, there is a reason for the quotation in the header)

All of these guys will give me the line, “we’re going to concentrate on the user experience,” but I don’t think that’s not enough to build loyalty at this point…again, just look at where the shopping comparison engines get their traffic (even though they are all concentrating on the user experience). Yes, click arbitrage can be part of the plan, but hopefully it’s not the entire plan. Loyalty is a sticky topic (sorry), and I don’t have the answers. SideStep is now in the top 20 most visited travel sites according to Comscore, and I think a lot of that traffic is due to the toolbar…retention must be incredible. What’s the toolbar answer for the travel search websites? Job search has an advantage here in that the job search process is a long (3 month? 6 month? Lifetime?) event. Capturing a user early on in the process might automatically have the same effect the SideStep toolbar has for travel search.

Ahh…the power just went off on University Ave. and there seems to be fire coming out of a manhole. Maybe a sign to stop writing.

Ok, to sum up, this is just some stuff I’m thinking about so you have an idea of how I’m looking at the marketing and loyalty challenges. Next up : Datafeeds & Scraping.