Rollyo Own Vertical Search

I’ve heard about Rollyo for the past few months and decided to finally take it for a spin myself. I’m already addicted and a huge Rollyo fan. Wilth Rollyo, individuals can “roll” their own personalized vertical searches by specifying up to 25 web site per search. Within just a couple minutes, I had an account created and launched my first “searchroll”, the eMedia Web. With the eMedia Web, you can now search all major online media / publishing web sites at one time. I have integrated it into the sidebar of my blog site or you can go directly to the eMedia Web Searchroll on Rollyo’s site.

Rollyo is the creation of Dave Pell and is powered by Yahoo! Search. It embraces one of the core Web 2.0 concepts of harnessing the power of the people by giving individuals the ability to create their own web searches based on their knowledge and the ability to share that search with others who may be interested. For publishers, it is one of the fundamental seed changes happening online today: our roles are changing from authoritative providers of content, to where we must also facilitate the creation of content by the immense combined knowledge of an entire professional or personal community.

There has also been much talk among publishers — especially in the B2B world — about vertical search. What impact does Rollyo have on vertical search? If I as an individual can create my own personalized web searches (I can create a different one for each personal / professional subject I may be interested in), why do I need a publisher to create one for me?

I’ll explore that question in a later post, but it’s something for all of us to think about. I’m anxious to understand Rollyo’s relationship with Yahoo, their business model, and how we as publishers might be able to adapt their technology for our own use. A lot more to come on this, I’m sure.

BTW, my eMedia Web search includes the following sites so far: PaidContent.org, BtoB Magazine, Folio Magazine, iMediaConnection, ClickZ, eMarketer, Outsell Inc., Search Engine Watch, MarketingStudies.net, Direct Marketers Association, American Business Media, Online Publishers Association, Internet Advertising Bureau, and the research section of DoubleClick. If you have any recommendations for other sites, please contact me.