Difference Between Vertical & Horizontal Search

For years Google offered vertical searches, zooming into specific categories.  But in 2007 Google announced, and released, Google Universal Search – this new regular search feature exposes specific category searches to users.

Vertical Search

Searches come in two basic styles – horizontal and vertical.  A horizontal search targets a wide category range, then returns results from these diverse locations.  For example, search roller blades, and the horizontal search returns entries from sports sites, hobby sites, outdoors sites, and many other sites.

But in a vertical search the search engine digs into specific categories, so that the same roller blade search in a vertical image search delivers thousands of roller blade images.

Exposing Vertical Search

Google exposed vertical searches with tabs, then later with links.  With these, people selected searches in images, news, maps, and other vertical categories.  But most people didn’t understand how the links or tabs worked, and Google executives jokes that people needed a search engine for Google search categories.

Another way Google exposes vertical searches is with Onebox results.  The best Onebox example is a search for a stock symbol.  Type “AAPL” into the Google search bar, and Google shows the stock price and a stock price graph at the top of the search results.

Because people don’t often click on categories or understand that the Onebox provides the quickest and most direct path to their search information, Google developed another vertical search exposure.

Universal Searches

Universal searches work behind the scenes, searching horizontally across many categories, but digging into each category.  The search engine determines which information is most valid through a complex algorithm, then exposes those relevant links in the search results.

Google still uses verticals such as categories, Onebox, and vertical sites like Google Product Search, but now people receive much of the same information without ever knowing about or using those other methods.

Conclusion

Google Universal gives the masses vertical search results.  Google does it without the people doing a thing – they type in terms or queries into the search bar, and Google delivers the results.