Specialized Search Engines Carve Out Niches

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August 10, 2000 (7:41 AM EDT)

By Cynthia Flash,

FizzyLab, a Seattle company that says its new search relevancy technology will take searching Internet sites to a new level, never expects to become the next Yahoo or Alta Vista.

This search company instead will sell its products to websites that want to help their customers find what they're seeking.

News sites like those of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Denver Post are the first to use FizzyLab's search technology. But users don't see it. Instead they are automatically directed to related news articles categorized by FizzyLab technology.

FizzyLab, which just named the whiz kid who invented Metacrawler as its director of technology, is among a growing number of specialized search technology companies that are trying to capture the hearts and eyes of frustrated Internet users who can't always find what they're searching for.

Dozens of new search companies are trying to carve out a niche for themselves.

Why.com ranks websites by popularity and returns results based on use. GenieKnows.com, like Dogpile.com, grabs results from numerous search engines. And Google, which grabbed headlines in June when Yahoo (stock: YHOO) announced it would use it instead of Inktomi (stock: INKT) for its consumer search provider, claims its database of more than 1 billion Web pages is the biggest.

Erik Selberg, the 27-year-old Metacrawler inventor who joined FizzyLab last month, said the company's "Relevator" technology is "like a greeter at the store asking 'How can I help you? Can I help you refine your search?'"

It is similar to looking for a book at Amazon.com (stock: AMZN) and being shown other related books. Eventually, FizzyLab hopes to target large retail sites like Wal-Mart and help customers automatically find what they are looking for, Selberg said.

Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, said FizzyLab falls into the category of search companies that service individual websites. Instead of searching the entire Web, like a Yahoo or Excite (stock: ATHM), FizzyLab and others sell their services to sites that need a search function.

Other search engines, like Google, Alexa.com, and Autonomy.com, will offer related searches on the Web, he said.

But FizzyLab, which charges its customers a $1,000 to $10,000 per month service fee and hosts the search function on its own servers, appears to be the only one offering its relevancy technology to companies to use within their own sites, Sullivan said.

Atomz.com and Searchbutton.com are two other new companies that are targeting the growing site-specific search market.

"Site search has been difficult for people to do," Sullivan said. "You either use free software and understand how to [do it on] your own, or pay a lot of money and get a solution that's been difficult to install.

"There are new companies coming in that say, 'you don't have to have any software, you don't need to install anything on your new computers, we will come remotely and do it for you.' That's easy for people to do," he said.

Reach freelance writer Cynthia Flash at cynthia@flashmediaservices.com.