Andy Beal expects a deal to be completed between Oodle and the Washington Post very soon that would integrate Oodle’s online classified spidered content into an overhaul at ReadExpress.
The ongoing land grab of (most) of the verticals is extremely entertaining, and I think it’s a strong strategy that’s bound to become more competitive. Right now, vertical search engines tend to want to get paid for powering a site’s job search section, basically licensing their content for a fee. However, that’ll change.
Think Google’s Mapping API. Google gives this away to anyone who wants it, which typically leads to interesting mash-ups on real estate or travel sites and some impressive reach for Google in return. The caveat, however, is that Google reserves the right to enhance these APIs as they see fit. For example, Google could (and is) start adding advertising elements to its mapping solution, which becomes more valuable due to its greater-than-Google-alone reach.
Imagine if a job vertical gave its API/content away and ended up with a network of hundreds – even thousands – of sites hosting its job content. At some point, that reach becomes pretty valuable if a vertical wants to sell enhanced listings on its network at some point down the road, similar to how eBay has sponsored listings with bold, framed and/or highlighted results.
With the growing influence of Google Base (could a Google Base API be far behind?), the verticals need to expand their reach to remain competitive. Build the network, generate the revenue, then share the revenue.
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