Occasionally we like to get out of the office and go visit one of the alternative search engines at their offices. Today we went to the headquarters of Vinquire to find out more about their project from John Kleven, Founder & CEO.

ABOUT:
I founded Vinquire.com two years ago to help people find the wines they love, at the best prices available. Wine prices and inventory vary dramatically, and finding rare bottles or the best price can require significant effort without some help. Enter Vinquire, a wine search engine that enables users to find wines at retailers and wineries throughout the United States.

Vinquire crawls and receives data feeds from over 3,500 online wineries and retailers. We bring close to one million wines for sale into our hybrid database/indexing system, which allows users to search for wines in ways previously not possible. Users can search for wines available at all retailers, an individual retailer, or a set of “favorite retailers.”

OLD SCHOOL:
Until recently, most websites devoted to wine were a flashback to the 90’s. The wine world simply wasn’t embracing anything high-tech and the largest wine sites were the heavy hitters of the wine publication trade: Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Robert Parker, etc. These sites generally focus on wine reviews and offer little in the way of Web 2.0 social interactivity, and even less in terms of search capabilities.

This dearth of next-generation wine sites gave birth to Vinquire and many other wine-related sites over the last few years, finally bringing this market niche into the online era. Many of these next-gen wine sites focus on user-submitted reviews and community-oriented content, and, while Vinquire offers these features, we try and set ourselves apart on the search.

THE SEARCH:
Vinquire users are presented with either a simplified search, or “advanced search” options such as:
* vintage,
* min/max price,
* type (i.e., red, white, rosé, dessert, etc),
* bottle size
* retailer options.

Most options are self explanatory, but “retailer options” deserves examination. The “retailer options” search function enables users to specify a special set of their favorite retailers, and search within these shops only.

Additionally, Vinquire offers a special search to find wine retailers within a user’s neighborhood. With the “Find Retailers” tab, users enter a zip code to find wine shops in their local area. After selecting a location, clicking “Search this retailer’s inventory” enables users to search for wines at that store exclusively. By taking advantage of these localized search options, site visitors can now find wines in their neighborhood and save money on shipping.

PITFALLS:
Maintaining focus on our core product requires a lot of dedication. There are many ways that Vinquire can grow, and we try to make sure that our core product, a wine search engine, is always at the forefront. Getting clean wine database inventory from thousands of wine retailers is challenging, and as we grow, we continue to improve the quality and timeliness of wines in our system. It is a challenge, but something that we’re passionate about.

CONCLUSION:
This year promises to be special for Vinquire as we add new features and continue to refine the raw wine data that we crawl and index. Check us out the next time you are looking for a special bottle of wine at www.vinquire.com. Cheers!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 5:53 pm and is filed under CEO Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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