Google moves deeper into specialized search

We have been discussing specialized search on the blog (for example, see: Yahoo Appears to be Changing Its Focus from Basic Search to Services and Yahoo's Changing Search Strategy - Will It Pick Up Niche Services? Yahoo is not the only mover in this direction. As reported by Venture beat, Google is planning to launch a music search service with music sites Lala and MySpace-owned iLike, according to multiple reports.

The article states that with this new service, you’ll be able to search for a musician, then play songs streamed from partner sites like Lala and iLike. CNET describes the goal as providing “everything a music fan may need when searching online for a favorite artist,” while TechCrunch says the pages will be modeled on Google’s results for public company searches.

It goes on to add that this sounds like a smart move for both Google and the music companies, giving Google a cool new service without requiring the search giant to host the music or strike deals with the record labels on its own, while bringing more exposure to Lala and iLike.

We certainly agree and feel that specialized search services are one of the next major directions with search. The Google page rank approach has been around for some time. It keeps getting refined but you can take it only so far.  It was a huge improvement over what was available. But you still get many false positives and lots of stuff to shift through. Specialized search can get you there faster.  This is the approach we have taken with TVissimo to provide you with quick access to what is one TV and the ability to send alerts when you favorite shows, actors, etc. will appear. You can find things you did not know where coming up.