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Motorola Take Note: Apple shows how to do a brand launch

Rumours are swirling about iPhone 2.0 already.

Note to Motorola: When you launch what will be a high profile product, have your follow-up in the wings and ready to go for 6 months after the initial launch to keep brand momentum on your side. Don’t launch something and then leave it to die in the marketplace for 2 years like you did with the RAZR.

apple, engadget, gizmodo, motorola, quanta razr

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Retrevo - Gadget Search Vertical Nirvana

Consumer electronics - aka “gadgets” - is a huge enterprise: just check the cross talk that dominates Digg about PS3’s, Wii’s, and Apple, or the burgeoning reader populations of Gizmodo, Engadget, and Crunchgear.

The existence of Retrevo, therefore, comes as little surprise: its a search aggregator that pulls together information in a targeted, gadget focused vertical - only specific gadget-focused content sources are indexed.

To illustrate the notion of a vertical search engine, I put together my first ever Dion Hinchcliffe style graphic.

1. The blue bars indicate the mix of formats and topic areas that define content found on the web: video, blogs, gadget blogs, adult video - everything gets a blue bar.
2. The yellow “horizontals” denote the major search engines and their attempt to index *everything* on the net - a very wide reach.
3. The relative size of each yellow bar illustrates their different depths - Google has a bigger index than MSN or Yahoo, and they all overlap.
4. Retrevo is the red/pink bar: this is the essence of a search vertical: trying to own a single (or small group of related) blue bar(s), cover it very deeply (note the relative coverage of that particular bar compared to Google/MSN/Yahoo), and index it thoroughly.

So - that’s Retrevo in a nutshell: they’ve pegged “gadgets” as a vertical blue bar, and built an application around indexing it and serving focused results.

Content and links found via Retrevo are nicely categorized:

1. Product Documents: Manuals! A spectacular feature, Retrevo indexes manuals - perfect for figuring out how to work items who’s packaging is long since lost. Only shows up for searches containing a specific product name that Retrevo recognizes.
2. Manufacturer Info: Official site and product pages for searches that include a prominent brand.
3. Reviews and Articles: Wikipedia content where applicable, reviews from sites like dpreview.com.
4. Forums and Blogs: Retrevo indexes specific topical forums, as well as the usual suspect gadget blogs.
5. Shopping: Retrevo serves up results from Amazon, eBay, and other recognizable A-list retailers.

I particularly love the inclusion of forums: they are a huge source of user-contributed content, conveniently sorted by taxonomy (depending on how different forums are organized) and keywords (thread titles). Forums seem to have gotten a the short end of the stick in the wider internet world, having been passed hype-wise by blogs, Twitter, and so on - but Retrevo has correctly identified them as a massive repository of contributed knowledge.

I found Retrevo search results to be consistently good: my search for GPS turned up good blog entries, product sites, and shopping options, as well as topic-area knowledge such as the Wikipedia article on GPS technology. My search for “Casio Exilim EX-S3” turned up lots on my trusty old pocket shooter - including the instruction manual - that’s just awesome.

A Few Suggestions

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t include a few thoughts as to how Retrevo could be better.

1. Ditch the Preview: Retrevo devotes half of its screen real estate to a preview pane that loads a page who’s “preview” button you click on in search results. Thoughts: this had more relevance before browsers were tabbed. Set every link to “target=_new” and call it a day. Reclaim that real estate for nicer results. If you absolutely need previews, use Snap Shots. I suppose the preview pane may increase “stickiness” - but the utility of a search tool is judged on task-completion-effectiveness: deliver on that value point well and stickiness shouldn’t be a problem.
2. Build a Co-brandable Gadget Search Widget: Build a Retrevo search widget that can be co-branded, and then cut deals to get it on Engadget and Gizmodo, and of course any other gadget blog that wants it. The more people to who your functionality is accessible, the better - let the network work for you.

That’s it - Retrevo is a great vertical application. Its a Google-killer - in its narrow scope. If it can distribution and top-of-mind awareness in gadget-freaks head’s, then I’m sure it will continue to grow and flourish.

electronics, engadget, gadgets, gizmodo, google, retrevo search

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