ThomasNet goes vertical--to the stratosphere!

Found in my ThomasNet "Link" email newsletter:

The Aerospace Industry Resource: "This resource provides supplier, part, product and other information pertaining to the aerospace industry. Find discussions on news and trends within the aerospace industry as well as tap into our collection of online tools including CAD drawings, standards, part specs and more."

So, Thomas has decided to narrow up their content by industry. A brilliant step, however obvious it seems to be. But, as you know I'm going to point out, only as brilliant as the execution.

So what is on/in this aerospace portal?

• NASA picture of the day
• Search box, of course
• Browse by category (looks like handpicked categories for aerospace)
• Headlines from their 'launch pad' discussion forums in the left column
• Aerospace headlines in the right column
• Two featured vendors in the center column

All the basic vertical portal site stuff is there. What concerns me is that the search and vendor information is all the same TN content. It isn't specialized in any way. I did test out the 'browse by category', and all the sub-categories are aerospace-related, which is good. But the search box doesn't do this or offer an pull-down menu option to search just aerospace.

A decent start and a great idea, but I don't see a lot to get aerospace engineers to bookmark this vertical site or return to it.