Canadian meta-search company unveils new medical search engine

• Earlier today, Montreal based meta-search engine Mamma.Com announced the beta release of Mamma Health Services, the first of a line of "deep web" vertical search tools planned to be introduced over the next twelve months.
• A vertical search engine is one that focuses on unique range of subjects, such as health, travel, or shopping in the quest to present users with topic-specific search results.
• For a meta-search company like Mamma.Com, establishing a series of vertical search tools might be a wise move given the numerous sources available for them to call information from.
• The term "deep web" is used to define areas of the web not commonly indexed by search engines such as information found in password protected areas, content accessed by subscription, or documents extracted from protected databases.
• MammaHealth.com cites references from 7 or 8 highly reputable sources including WebMD.com, Medicine Net, Health Day, and the UK National Health Service.
• Searchers are presented with an easy to read page providing quick reference answers which are arranged in a fashion designed to educate as much as inform with the first results leading searchers through four early sections labeled "about", "causes", "symptoms", and "treatment".
• Faure noted Mamma.com wanted to avoid paid advertising on the Health-vertical but would not rule it out for future vertical search engines.
• Our technology does more than aggregate results from various content providers for medical information; we crawl deep into the websites of certain handpicked, trusted, medical websites to extract and format results in a easy to understand, and comprehensive manner."
• Another appealing feature is the "second opinion" option which provides users a greater number of choices drawn from the trusted Health sources.
• By building vertical search tools, Mamma can avoid competing against the Big4 in the field of general search while offering their users tightly focused information.