Vertical search sites have long since stopped trying to compete with Google and are focusing instead on trying to be a niche destination site. Vertical search is a specialized search in the Internet search industry with search engines that focus on specific businesses. In a generic search engine, users would have to rely on complex keyword combinations to dig into the most relevant results. Vertical search engines send their spiders out to a highly refined database and their indexes contain information about a specific topic, say for example restaurants.
A restaurant search engine reaches out to a focused audience, who are out there looking for a fine dining guide. They are the new key to find good restaurants. When users search for restaurants in their neighborhoods, the listings displayed to them contain detailed restaurant information such as reviews, ratings, cuisine type, menu, signature dish, decor description, hours of operation, price ranges, discounts and more.
People write on blogs and review sites about the restaurants they visited and restaurant search engines like BooRah have an algorithm that captures this wisdom of crowds to bring it back to users. BooRah’s semantic scoring engine analyses what people have written and generates specific scores for food, service and ambiance from user sentiments. Restaurant search engines capture the community vibe and social essence of existing online groups, and compare these results to an individual’s search criteria; thereby delivering unsurpassed relevance with the broadest community reach. They provide a fine dining guide that acts like a one-stop shop for diners. They deliver pertinent information gathered from over a million online restaurant reviews & provide a restaurant guide for food, service and ambiance, all in the same place.
The vertical search engines are more of ultimate personalized review guides featuring detailed restaurants ratings, menus, photographs, discount restaurant gift certificates and coupons, keyword searches and other relevant restaurant information (like online restaurant reservations) compiled from hundreds of sources on the Internet. Users can find professional and user reviews available from other Web sites. The search features allow users to search by name, cuisine or location. They also provide addresses, hours, driving directions, maps, etc. for all local restaurants.
The use of Natural Language Processing technology generates quantitative scores for domain specific attributes from plain English text and automatically summarizes the most relevant user sentiment and enables a highly customizable search based on personal preferences. The search engine automatically summarizes a collection of online reviews from bloggers, professional critics and consumers, and allows consumers to search restaurants based on their personal preferences. This technology in vertical search engines is especially a handy tool for the metros, where people have exhaustive number of restaurants to choose from.
The growing search engine technology is also helping local business owners track their reviews and reputation online, and capitalize on the growing trend of user-generated restaurant recommendations. The new search engines are also powering newspaper sites with local restaurant reviews (with their automated natural-language based approach to summarize user generated content). All these technological advancements are surely making the search for restaurants a quick, easy and effective process.