Looking into the virtual world, Vertical Search has on and off hyped over the past ten years, but now it seems that it is finally gaining some momentum. As Internet usage is growing rapidly, and new and new websites are coming up constantly, there is a growing need for vertical search sites, which can form a good source of specialized information.

Looking the broader picture, the growing foothold of the vertical search industry opens a huge potential for the marketers. Vertical search engine users are as motivated and targeted as a group of users. For any specialized business, the ROI by advertising and getting known on these sites will be significant as they will be able to target their niche audiences.

At the April 2007 SES conference, Brad Bauer from ClearGauge reported a case study of a Siemens Profitnet marketing effort. They found that Google drove more than twice the clicks of Business.com, however Business.com, a vertical search focused on business services, generated 60 percent more conversions at 1/5 the cost.

While the numbers from vertical search may not be overwhelming like horizontal search engines like Google and Bing, but when we talk about the vertical search industry, less is definitely more in terms of ROI.

One very common example of vertical search market that almost all of us might have used is Yahoo Travels!. The site is one of the most popular travel search portal and is growing in its popularity day by day. The reason for its success is that the portal was formed long before the concept of vertical markets came into online world and thus, is one of the early adopters.

Thus, as a marketer, when selecting a vertical for advertising,  try going with a well established site that has a substantial audience base.

Below is a list of some other established verticals

Globalspec.com for the engineering industry, Petfinder.com, IMDB.com for movie buffs, Findlaw.com, and Findarticles.com, one of Looksmart’s many vertical offerings. Excellent sources for vertical search sites are trade magazines, trade shows and special interest consumer publications.