Niche Search Engines and Guides - Web Developer‘s Journal

The Best Way to Surf the Web
byBenjamin Yoskovitz
Niche search engines may be the new and improved way of searching the Internet. A niche search engine focuses on a smaller range of topics, as opposed to search engine giants such as Alta Vista and Yahoo, where you can find almost anything, or at least try.
March 14, 1997
The problem that has become apparent with the larger search engines is their lack of precise capabilities in finding what the user wants. You always seem to end up with thousands of sites found that have nothing to do with what you are looking for. Other names for these niche search engines are niche Web guides and niche directories. They all essentially offer the same service, a more narrow approach to surfing the Web.
Some of these niche search engines and guides offer information on their sites directly, direct you to other sites with articles or information of importance, or are simply lists of sites related to the specific topic of interest.
These niche search engines offer a way of eliminating the noise of all the Web sites out there, and they offer users a faster, more direct link to the information that they are searching for.
What do these niche search engines mean for the Web?
These niche search engines and guides could have a profound effect on how people navigate the World Wide Web. These Web sites should give users a faster, more effective, more direct way of locating the specific information they are looking for.
Why would a busy user go to one of the monster engines and come out with 20,000 results (how many of which are truly useful?) when they can go to a niche search engine site and immediately have a narrowed-down focus? I think less and less people is the answer, especially as more niche engines and guides become available.
What seems to be slowly happening is that the bigger search engines are taking notice. One example of this is that Excite has recently announced plans to join Rolling Stone in building a search service dedicated to rock ‘n‘ roll (USA Today Online, 01/13/97,http://usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ct374.htm).
Another interesting twist to developing a niche search engine or guide is the ability to charge premium advertising rates. Since these niche Web sites have very specific target markets, certain advertisers may be more interested in them, and consequently may end up paying more to reach a more targeted market. Why would an advertiser throw up an ad randomly on a search even if it gets many more hits, when no one knows for sure who is going to see it? Although some search engines target their ads depending on what the user searches for, this is still a patch-up answer for advertisers, and I think niche engines and guides offer a much more selective crowd of users.
Where are these niche search engines?
I have collected a short list of niche search engines and guides to give you an idea of what they are trying to do. The biggest problem that I believe they will face is getting recognized. Unless these search engines can get the attention and awareness of the millions of Web users online, they will never succeed.
DisInformation (http://www.disinfo.com): This niche search engine covers counterculture, UFOs and conspiracy theories.
LookSmart (http://www.looksmart.com): This site is affiliated with Reader‘s Digest, and although they seem to claim that they are creating a niche Web site, my last visit showed that they are diverging slightly, in my opinion, from this premise.
GamePen (http://www.gamepen.com): This site offers information on the gaming world, companies, new releases, and more. I think that this site would be called more of a niche guide than niche engine, but the concepts are very similar.
Beatrice‘s Web Guide (http://www.bguide.com): Well, even in the title of this site, they use the word "guide", but this is an excellent niche resource for information and sites specifically of interest to women.
Chiropractic America (http://www.chirousa.com): This site offers a very targeted service, in that they will help you locate a chiropractor in your area by entering your zip code.
Yelp (http://www.yelp.com): This site is a niche search engine for languages. It allows you to search the Web for different-language resources (aside from English) including French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, and Vietnamese. This is a different type of niche market from the other sites listed, but still a niche, and one that should be expanding very rapidly on the Web (c|net - news.com, 12/15/96, http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6575,00.html).
Overall it appears that niche search engines, and especially niche guides, are catching on, and should have a significant impact on the Web, and the way people search for information.
Read Benjamin Yoskovitz‘s Other Columns:
- You Must Be Master of Your Own Domain
- The Design Dilemma: Custom Design or Template Web Sites?