• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 30, 2005

Hoping to narrow online queries before users even hit the search button, online search provider LookSmart launched five vertical search sites yesterday, each aimed at a particular demographic--teens, tweens, college students, mothers, and parents. The content accessible through each site is drawn from LookSmart's general search engine FindArticles.com. Three of the sites are homework aids--teenja.com for teens, gradewinner.com for tweens, and 24hourscholar.com for young adults in college--while parentsurf.com is geared toward mothers and fathers, and gobelle.com is just for mothers.

Debby Richman, LookSmart's senior vice president of consumer products, said the new service improves on other vertical search sites because content available at LookSmart's various destinations is vetted for relevance by its own editors.

Richman said the additional "verticalization" of LookSmart's content will help marketers. "Knowing more about users because of where they're search will result in greater and narrowed exposure for advertisers," said Richman.

LookSmart, Richman added, is developing its own product to eventually supplement Google's AdSense ads that are now offered with listing, and is dedicated to further "verticalization."