Graeme McCracken Chief Operating Officer, RB Search

gmccracken@reedbusiness.com

Vertical Search: Challenges & Opportunities

Search: A growing market!Search: A growing market!• Forrester predicted $34b by 2010, we believe it will be closer to double this with at least $11b

in B2B• 59% of dollars migrating from other media budgets (print, web display ads, shopping

directories, email, direct marketing, etc)• 35% of user sessions initiated by a query, making site search the most used application on a

typical web site• B2B site search success rate is only 58%• 30% of visitors abandon a site with each failed query• Industry/Vertical search typically yields a 30 – 60% increase in page views per year – 50%

from new customers

8%

27%

37%

28%

I never found what Iwas looking for

Researched online,purchased offline

Researched andpurchased online

Still researching

“What was the result of your online research?”

83%

8%

3%

2%

Google

Yahoo!

AlltheWeb

MSN

Google most used in B2B markets

The Fried Egg ModelThe Fried Egg Model

Addressed Market

“Bonus” audience

It may feel safe….but for how long?It may feel safe….but for how long?

Frogs are SO! hot

Understand your market, content & searchUnderstand your market, content & search

ResearcherDomain queries

Focused vocabularyInitial broad queries

RefinementQueries in related domains

User Profiles:• Researchers• Buyers• Browsers

• Researchers and buyers behave similarly, as they are both goal-oriented. The system need to be designed with their needs in mind

• Browsers are ancillary and will benefit by proxy

BrowserBroad queries

Generalize vocabularyLonger sessions

BuyerGoal seeker

Domain queriesFocused vocabulary

Specific queriesRefinementClick-thrus

Search Platform

Typical Searches:• Goal-oriented, precise• Multi-term with no conjunctives• Most likely to include category or solution

domain terms• Refinement, sorting and filtering will be

important aspects of the results UI• Users will rely heavily on system to

“return the right thing” or to help them “find the right thing”

The problem with search todayThe problem with search today

Precision

• Mention vs. About• Noise & Spam

Recall

• Breadth vs. Depth• Context & Semantics

Refinement

• Navigation• Mindset & Intention

Impact

1. Searcher Frustration

2. Advertiser ROI

The other problem with search – an inverse modelThe other problem with search – an inverse model

The more relevant/targeted the advert….the less you pay

RB SearchRB Search

Technology Platform3. Improve results and implement testing methodology4. Develop UI and Usability competence5. Continue to develop product

Zibb.com & Zibbsearch.nl1. Build best in breed B2B Search

Engine

Zibb on Demand2. Build best in breed Vertical Search &

Widgets for all RB websites

What does search do for us?What does search do for us?

Millions of B2B Spec Sheets,

Catalogs, Press Releases, White

Papers

Topic Taxonomy Content Indexing Product & ServiceOntology

Geographic Taxonomy

Individual/ Position

Over 2 billion B2B Web Pages,

News & Blogs

3 million companies

220k Products/ Services

Millions of Attendees & Exhibitors

• Taxonomy links all B2B content together

• Crawl – RB proprietary plus B2B web content

• Aggregate Content – a holistic design principle

• User Interface/Branding Architecture

• Not one site, but a multitude & powers all 900 websites and more

• Benefits: Answering B2B queries; Web /Blog plus site search; Adsense for Search; Traffic Cascade to RB sites/CPM & CPC Revenue

B2B Web

The Search Engine

Company Taxonomy

+5 million News Articles

Multiple Repositories

What is the Value to the Consumer?What is the Value to the Consumer?

From… ...To

Content Source All the Web/Site Specific Industry Specific

Search Failure Rate > 50% < 5%

Relevance Broad and Arbitrary Contextual & Explainable

Interaction Pull Push & Pull

Perception No Alternative Useful

Disambiguation None Navigation

Productivity Gather Links Analyze Information

What is the Benefit to the Business?What is the Benefit to the Business?

From… ...To

Search Traffic (% of Total) 1% More than 10%

Overall Traffic Impact Limited Source of Differentiation

Revenue per Search $? $0.05

Standards None Scale & Advantage

Search Roadmap Not a Priority Competitive Advantage

Other Monetization NA Incremental

Maintenance & Support Site Specific Centralized & Dedicated

Sources: Outsell; Forrester

Zibb – branded vertical searchZibb – branded vertical search

ZIbb – Better Answers by MarketZIbb – Better Answers by Market

Zibb On Demand – Beyond Search !Zibb On Demand – Beyond Search !

Video & Part Search

112 ive ZoD’s+70 live with News Feeds, Related Items, Infusion on sites that generate +50 million page impressions per month

driving 54% YOY increase in page impressions Driven by 15 million ZoD/widget, 130 million queries and more than 2 million direct searches per month Growing at +30% per month

Domain Expertise – better answersDomain Expertise – better answers

Content Type – the web is a medium, not a type of content!• Disambiguation – did you want news/product/blog/catalog, etc?Market – you are special, so is the content within our index• Market specific, quality content – own your own index!Taxonomy, Ontology, Folksonomy – describe your market• Answers, not questions – lotus car or lotus position• Aboutness

– Everything you ever wanted to know ‘about’ …… but were afraid to ask! – A specific zone for all our specialised users

• RB Search classifies all our content by multiple taxonomies by Topic, Product, Company, Geography, Individual/Job Position

• Web 2.0?……………. no more like Web 3.0 (the Semantic Version)

…………………………………………………………..In short it is about Answers, not Questions!

You may think I am decoupled…and you would be right!You may think I am decoupled…and you would be right!

XML

XML XML

Raising the Sea Level – Reverse ThinkingRaising the Sea Level – Reverse Thinking

950 websites

EDN

Flight

Variety

Powder Bulk Solids

ECN

Yeserday Today

Not a silver bullet – you only get one of those!Not a silver bullet – you only get one of those!

Then you get carried awayThen you get carried away

Key takeawaysKey takeaways

• Search fundamentally changes the game – both for internal and external content – Google proves this

• You can exploit this to do internal and external developments faster, cheaper and better• Always choose the best product for that specific purpose, do not make do! Even second best

costs you money and more importantly time• It is not cheap…..but as an infrastructure and game changer it is very reasonable • Business models are challenging and you need to be nimble in order to exploit opportunities• Apply standards/taxonomies globally, do not try to standardise systems globally - its quicker,

better and simpler• Decouple, decouple, decouple….keeps it simple to manage, fast to integrate and incredibly

flexible• It can power far more than you would ever believe possible - it breaks the RDBMS rules and

can make you agile• It’s about speed and aggression – that is what drives innovation

• ……..it is also a little frightening, as it breaks rules, challenges business and IT and liberates you

Questions