Cnet's article on competition in the Web search engine segment provides a very good overview of new players that are gaining attention due to specialized capabilities, such as personalization, improved display of search results, local search, and search specialization by content-type or industry. Red Herring [registration required] categorizes the emerging (and re-emerging) specialty search companies a bit differently, but combined, the two articles provide a fairly thorough picture of various businesses that focus on Web search technology. While there is a need for many types of companies that attack search relevancy from different angles, the piecemeal approach we're seeing of some companies focusing on display, some companies focusing on behavioral patterns, some on localized search, some on contextual relevancy makes it clear that consolidation of efforts is required in order to provide a better result for consumers and advertisers. Presumably the heightened press about the up-and-comers will facilitate Google's job of identifying which companies to buy--whether or not they have IPO cash available. But, even with an acquisitive Google, there remains room for specialized search companies that can provide a deep understanding of research or business applications for particular functional areas or other well-defined communities of users. In some cases, the specialized search technology can also serve the purpose of supplying a contextual advertising platform for targeted advertisers. iPhrase and IndustryBrains are two such companies that were mentioned in the above-referenced articles. Interestingly, both were cited for specialized search and contextual advertising for the financial information segment.