Vertical search has gotten the attention of more and more people, from venture capitalists to publications in the last year or so. Because the vast amounts of available information found through a general search engine like Google can sometimes be a tad intimidating, these search engines are positioning themselves as tools people can use to cut through some of the clutter and get straight to what interests them.

There’s value in that, especially as time crunches get more and more severe. The biggest thing that’s going to bring ordinary people to these sorts of search engines is the fact that they keep getting scooped up by publishers. After all, finding the vertical search engine can sometimes be as time-consuming and difficult as finding the information itself. So facilitating the introduction of the searcher and the tool means publishers are well-positioned to add more value to the lives of their readers.

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In case anyone is ever wondering why we pay so much attention to Google Pageranks and SEO as it relates to Google, it’s largely because Google is eating everyone else’s lunch in the search market. According to ComScore, it now commands 61% of the market, three times what is enjoyed by Yahoo, the next biggest player.

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Online analytics firm Compete has introduced a new measurement tool that compares paid to organic search results. The new data break-out will allow clients to see trends over time related to how many of their referrals are coming from either form of search.