Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Co. hopes to increase business with a search engine that directs users to Fidelity's competitors.
Its technology development unit, Fidelity Labs Inc., is testing the search tool, which seeks out only financial Web sites when people request information about banking and investment products and services. The results page includes links to various Web sites - not necessarily including Fidelity's.
Sean Belka, a senior vice president with the Boston company, said Financial Search uses "a purely objective process." For example, in a search Monday using the term "401(k)," Fidelity came up fifth, behind SmartMoney.com, Vanguard.com, Yahoo.com, and Bloomberg.com.
"We're fully comfortable with letting Fidelity show up wherever it may," Mr. Belka said, because that demonstrates the search engine's objectivity. Customers will "look at us as somebody who is a trusted source of information."
"It's really important to us that we have customers who are successful," he said. "If we help them be successful, they'll appreciate that and think of us when they have needs."
Mr. Belka said that Fidelity Labs has been evaluating Financial Search on its Web site since December, and there are no current plans to add it to Fidelity Investments' main Web page or sell it to other companies.
He said Fidelity is also developing a search engine for mortgages, even though it does not sell mortgages; it would benefit only by generating good will.
Other financial services companies have built portals that used search tools and links to online merchants to round out their own Web sites. But the idea has had little success because most people prefer to navigate to such destinations themselves.
Mr. Belka said he does not expect Fidelity's search engine to replace search sites such as Google or Yahoo. But "customers have come to us with some issues that they're dealing with and asked if we can help," he said. "Financial Search emanated from that idea."
He said there is growing demand for search applications for a range of specific industries.
Kosmix Corp. is developing a search tool that it plans to offer to financial companies. The Mountain View, Calif., software outfit already has vertical search engines for travel and politics and a health-care tool that is used at ChoiceMedia Inc.'s HealthCentral.com and DrKoop.com.
Vivin Ramamurthy, who works in the business development group at Kosmix, said a search for bonds using a Kosmix search engine would only list results from financial sites.
But "in some of the other search engines, if you type in 'bond' some of the categories that you might see are James Bond," Mr. Ramamurthy said. "We understand the context of the query here."
Financial-specific search tools draw people to a financial company's Web site, where they are exposed to that brand even if they go to another site to buy something, Mr. Ramamurthy said. In addition, users may return to the financial company's site for further searches.
Mr. Ramamurthy said companies using a Kosmix search engine can use the software to track how people are finding competitors' Web sites. The Internet search records Kosmix customers have access to are "actually very, very valuable," he said.
Dan Schatt, a senior analyst for the Boston market research firm Celent Communications LLC, said that companies can use vertical search engines to "study up on everything competitors are doing in those specific areas." The search engine becomes "a market intelligence tool," Mr. Schatt said.
He said Fidelity's search engine caters to people who typically evaluate financial products at several sites before making a decision.
Anything that brings more visitors can increase brand recognition, even among people who buy from a rival, Mr. Schatt said.
"Even if you're No. 7" in the search results, he said, it's better than not showing up at all in a general search engine's results. "The proposition is you're attracting consumers who never would have gone to your Web site."
