KnowledgeStorm to Launch Vertical Search

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KnowledgeStorm will unveil its new technology-focused vertical search engine this week at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, Calif., giving users access to IT information, and generating more leads for advertisers from a broader audience.

"We did a lot of user surveys last fall to find out what the technology buyer community is looking for. What we found is that they want technology-focused vertical search," said Laurie Hood, KnowledgeStorm's VP of marketing.

KnowIT.com aims to provide searchers with access to hardware, software and IT services information from around the Web. In addition to the information in KnowledgeStorm's paid-inclusion directory of tech-focused information, KnowIT.com will crawl the 150 sites in its distribution partner network, mostly industry journals and trade magazines. It will also begin to crawl other user-submitted sites to add to its index.

"The key for us here is relevance. If users are looking for technology information, KnowledgeStorm is the place to start," Hood said.

Besides appearing in the organic search results, listings from KnowledgeStorm's directory will be prominently placed alongside the search results, giving its advertisers a new distribution vehicle for their online lead-generation activities. KnowledgeStorm's primary traffic driver previously had been its partner network, as well as its "Click-to-Lead" search marketing program.

Under that program, advertisers can pay a flat fee to have KnowledgeStorm and partner Inceptor manage a search engine marketing campaign to drive traffic to the advertisers' listing in the KnowledgeStorm directory. The program targets small and mid-sized companies who want to have an SEM program with the benefits of a flat fee structure.