Publishers ´would utilise´ vertical search

The majority of professionals working in the media and internet sectors would use a search engine dedicated to their specific business area, according to a new report.

Research conducted by E-consultancy with Convera found that 93 per cent of professionals in these sectors would be ´very likely´ or ´quite likely´ to utilise such a tool.

According to the poll, 80 per cent of internet professionals are already using RSS feeds that are specific to their industry and 54 per cent have personalised homepages.

Some 53 per cent said that a major benefit of a vertical search was speedier access to information, while 50 per cent are looking to improve workflow and business interests.

"Publishers have an opportunity to gain search market share by establishing themselves as the definitive search engine within a particular niche or sector," said Linus Gregoriadis from E-consultancy, Marketing Charts reports.

"The challenge for publishers is to disrupt this habitual use of popular search engines by producing a search tool which is better - and is perceived to be better - than generic search engines."

A recent study from Tamar found that brands are ´wasting´ budgets on generic search campaigns, rather than using ´intelligent´ search strategies.