What Is A Vertical Search?

Many people have no idea what a vertical search is or even how to find one. If you go to Google and look at the top of the page you will see a list of Vertical Search Engines listed like this: Web -Images - Video - News - Maps - Gmail - more ▼

Often a vertical search is referred to as a specialized search or a specialty search. In Google if you choose to search for a specific topic in a “vertical search” you are only searching against the sites listed within that specific category. In a regular search in Google you use a “horizontal search” which searches against a wide spectrum of information in Google’s database.

Here is an example:
Looking for information on a bass guitar? Search on “bass” in a horizontal search (regular search) in Google and you may get information about the fish bass. Use Google’s Vertical Search -“Products” and you get more relevant information on bass guitars.

You will start noticing that Google will be mixing in results from its vertical search with regular searches now that they have launched the Google Universal Search.