Written by Alex Iskold and edited by Richard MacManus.
This week at DEMOfall I saw two vertical search applications that made me think that this area is getting mature and ready for prime time. Pluggd and Retrevo launched technologies that are not only good at finding podcasts and consumer electronics (respectively) - these sites categorize and present information in fundamentally new, different and intelligent ways. They do it so well that generic search just can not compete.
In this article we look at the rise of vertical search and how it may end up threatening Google. We profile some of the more innovative and interesting vertical search engines - selected primarily based on how they organize the search results and allow the user to navigate through information. Try them out if you have not done so yet and let us know what you think... is vertical search ready for prime time?
There are always tradeoffs between generic and specialized applications, particularly in the area of information processing. The generic applications cover a wider spectrum, but specialized applications excel in their niche - because they have an intimate understanding of the semantics of information in their topics.
In the end, there will always be place for generic search - because it may not be economical to have a vertical search engine for every vertical. However, in major verticals, specialized search engines might take a big bite out of the generic search engines' market share - including Google's advertising pie.
Hot
on the heels of the well-received Google
Reader re-design, I received a tip tonight (thanks Mike Rundle) that Bloglines has also done a
slight re-design. On their blog they
note:
"You might have noticed a few fancy little changes we've made to your feed tree on the left pane today. You'll like them even more when you learn what's behind the scenes!
- We no longer update the entire left pane when the unread or "kept as new" counts change. Now the counts update in place with a fading yellow indicator. The result is a faster, more pleasant way to cruise through your feeds, especially for those quick on the hotkeys.
- We've decreased the time between automatic updates to your unread counts so you don't have to press the "r" hotkey quite so often."
It also appears to be a different typeface and a slightly 'fancier' look. Some nice ajax touches. This is just on the left navigation pane though - the actual reading pane stays the same. It'd be great if the ajax changes could be applied to the whole screen... maybe they're making the right pane next year's upgrade ;-) (kidding)
Google Reader, Google's web-based RSS Aggregator, has had a re-design and I am
impressed. It now has a look n' feel very much like Gmail, which I believe is a pointer
to this product being prepped for mainstream promotion - and/or merged with Gmail.
Probably a bit of both, as a standalone RSS Reader is always going to be needed. You'll
recall that the new Yahoo Mail Beta has RSS integrated into its email experience -
and the reason for that is quite simply to reach the 250 Million odd people that have a
Yahoo Mail account. What better way to make RSS a mainstream experience than to integrate
it into the web email platform. So I expect Google to follow suit.
Google Reader List view
You probably know that I am a huge fan of Gmail, so this new Google Reader interface was immediately a pleasure to use. I love that it automatically marks items as 'read' as you scroll. I also like the List view (very much like email), for quick scrolling, and the 'Expanded' view feels much more natural to use now. The 'sharing' functionality is excellent too - a shared clippings blog similar to Bloglines; and ability to share via email.
The new features:
I remember trying out Google Reader back in the Web 2.0 Conference last year, when it was launched. I was underwhelmed at that time, but this new design - with its Gmail-like interface, features, and speed to match - is much more impressive. Like Niall Kennedy, I hope they also integrate blog search into the Reader at some point - as well as tie into other Google services. But otherwise, Google has upped the ante in the online RSS Reader space. And also gone a long way towards matching Yahoo's email/RSS integration.
Expanded View
Update: Marshall Kirkpatrick at Techcrunch points out that Google is emphasizing the email tie-in: "Think of Google Reader as your inbox for the web."
Pluggd's HearHere technology allows people to search
inside podcasts - i.e. jump to an exact position in audio or video. Pluggd presented at
DEMO and Alex Iskold caught up with their CTO
and co-founder Jonathan Thompson for a quick interview...
R/WW: What is your company about?
Jonathan: Pluggd is a company focused on helping consumers discover, consume and share internet audio and video.
R/WW: Why did you start this company?
Jonathan: We saw that audio and video on the internet is reaching critical mass, but there is still a lack of tools that help people find and consume that content. These tools exist for the text-based web (e.g. Google) and are needed in the audio/video space as well.
R/WW: What are your major accomplishments so far?
Jonathan: Creating one of the largest podcast directories available and developing the HearHere technology (which we plan to make generally available by the end of the year).
R/WW: What are your major challenges?
Jonathan: Resources. :) As CTO, my focus is on recruiting the best and brightest software engineers to help us build out the breadth and depth of our vision.
R/WW: What are you going to build in the next 12 months?
Jonathan: Making HearHere generally available is my immediate focus. Beyond that, we have plans around social media, search and advertising.
R/WW: What is the most important thing for a start up to be successful?
Jonathan: Be scrappy. Be tenacious. Be passionate. Hire the best.
R/WW: What web sites / blogs do you use / read often?
Jonathan: Techcrunch, Read/WriteWeb, GigaOm, O'Reilly Radar.
R/WW: Which web 2.0 things are noise and which are signals?
Jonathan: Signals... the lowering barrier of entry that allows anyone to create, publish and remix all forms of content (both text and rich media); the growing availability of data and services that can be used in new, exciting, and often unplanned ways.
Noise... web 2.0 companies that haven't established themselves as sustainable businesses by creating unique solutions to a problem or developing differentiating IP.
R/WW: Did you feel that participating in DEMOFall was useful to Pluggd?
Jonathan: It was great! We couldn't have hoped for a better reception from the press, the investors, and other attendees at the event It was great to see that something we've worked so hard on created such buzz and that everyone who saw it immediately 'got it'.
R/WW: Can people play around with HearHere before it's generally available?
Jonathan: Yes, we demoed live code on our production servers that is available for everyone to check out at www.pluggd.com/demo.
Blogged Live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
Ed Anuff, founder and CEO of Widgetbox gave a sharp presentation this morning introducing Widgetbox - the online widget marketplace. Widgetbox is an end-to-end solution for both widget developers and widget consumers. The Widgetbox site provides a nicely organized directory of widgets - with categories for Games, Media, Blogs and Money Making. You can either browse, search for a widget by name or provider, or just get one of the featured or most popular widgets.
But Widgetbox is far from being just a directory, it really helps to make widgets and add meaning to widgets. Developers have access to tools to abstract and parametrize the widgets, so that users can customize them. For bloggers, Widgetbox offers a Widget panel. Once this panel is placed into a sidebar of a blog, any widget can be added simply via drag and drop.
The final feature that I thought was notable is the context-sensitivity built into widgets. Widgetbox calls this Tag Awareness - it is basically the ability for widgets to be reconfigured depending on the context of the page. As Ed mentioned in his presentation, we are in the very early days of the customizable, Read/Write Web (pun intended) and widgets are going to play a big role in this new web. I tend to agree [Richard: me too!].
Blogged Live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
Three years in making, the Linux Mail server from PostPath debuted at DEMOfall this morning. What took them so long? Well, their sever is a 100% compatible replacement for Microsoft Exchange running on Linux. As far as Outlook is concerned, it is talking to Microsoft Exchange Server - all of the protocols and information are exactly the same. The difference is in resilience, scalability and cost.
Since this is a Linux based solution, the pain of backup - which is notorious problem for Exchange administrators - is simply gone. PostPath stores everything in the form of flat files, so any Linux backup can work. One of the PostPath executives mentioned to me that the total cost of installation of PostPath is going to be about 1/3 of the cost of an Exchange installation. Given the cost savings, resilience and ease of use, I think this one could give Exchange run for the money.
Blogged Live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
This morning at DEMO Retrevo launched a public beta of a new vertical search engine for consumer electronics. This is one of the better examples of vertical search that I have seen so far. Retrievo offers a simple search box and then organizes the results into several categories. The Top results section has the most likely matches. Manufacturer information contains an impressive collection of user manuals. There are also sections for gadget reviews, blogs and forums.
The user interface is intelligent and helps you navigate quickly through the wealth of information. The system also allows you to share the search results via email to anyone - and they are guaranteed to see exactly the same page as you saw. The most impressive thing to me is the integration with user manuals. This difficult to find information is indexed and made readily available with Retrievo. The site is now in public beta, check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.
It's been a busy day on Read/WriteWeb, with Alex Iskold managing to find time to file multiple reports from DEMOfall 2006 in San Diego. Here are his posts from today:
Alex Iskold's own company, AdaptiveBlue, is also presenting at DEMO - debuting the Firefox extension blueorganizer. It's already gotten a rave review from Techcrunch, with Marshall Kirkpatrick writing:
"Social bookmarking is a crowded space, but for people who seek a well constructed tool that balances an intuitive user experience with features to please the power user, Blue Organizer may be a very good option. The beauty is in the details in this one."
As for my own highlights from Day 1, I love the sound of MojoPac - which allows Windows users to save their entire PC onto a USB or iPod. Also I think BuzzLogic is doing some cool things to track social influence on the Web.
See our list of DEMOfall 2006 presenting companies for full details of the 70-odd products chosen for DEMO. Thanks Alex for the excellent coverage and I can't wait for Day 2!
Photo: b_d_solis
Widgetbox is a marketplace for widgets and they are one of the companies presenting at DEMOfall '06. Alex Iskold caught up with Widgetbox CEO Ed Anuff today for a quick interview, before their presentation on Wednesday...
R/WW: What is your company about?
Widgetbox is a web widget marketplace that makes it easy to build widgets, find widgets, and use widgets.
R/WW: Why did you start this company?
We wanted to turn the portal model of web aggregation on its head and provide a way for the millions of bloggers and social networkers to be able to find and integrate content and application services into their web pages.
R/WW: What are you major accomplishments thus far?
Successful beta program which yielded over 200 widgets and over 5000 widget developers participated in the beta.
R/WW: What are your major challenges?
Make the everyday blog user or social network member aware of our service. Continue to make it as easy as possible to use.
R/WW: What are you going to build in the next 12 months?
The next major milestone for us is to roll out our advertising services which allow our users to select from an assortment of ads and affiliate ecommerce widgets that they can add to their sites to make money.
R/WW: What is the most important thing for a start up to be successful?
Determination and resourcefulness, have a big dream while keeping touch with reality, building a strong network of partners
R/WW: What web sites / blogs do you use / read often?
Mashable, Techcrunch, Read/WriteWeb, Programmable Web
R/WW: Which web 2.0 things are noise and which are signals?
Too soon to say, too many things are changing to quickly these days
Richard's Note: See also Widgets are the new black, a R/WW post from June in which I referenced Widgetbox.
Blogged Live from DEMOfall by Alex Iskold
Look
Ma, no charger! Today at DEMOfall, the CEO of Moixa
Energy Simon Daniel (a quirky physics PhD from the UK) dropped a bag full of
chargers on stage. He kicked them away and pulled out of his pocket the marvel
created by his company – a battery called
USBCell that charges from the USB port. Not only is this very cool, it's
smart - because there are billions of USB ports in desktops and laptops that can effectively become outlets for these batteries. It is also elegant, efficient
and environment friendly.
The company claims that it takes about 5 hours to fully charge a battery, but they are working on significantly reducing this time. There is already a version of this battery for cell phones, which has a USB jack attached to it via wire. Launched just last week, the site has had over 100,000 visitors already. The battery is going to be available first in UK, then later in US. It will be sold direct online and via major chains.
"This revolutionary rechargeable battery can charge from any USB port without the need for any recharging devices, cradles or cables. Simply pop the lid to reveal a built in connector and charger, plug into any powered USB port on your desktop, laptop, keyboard or games console, to charge the battery."
