When you work to figure out what people are searching for on the Net and which topics the are having trouble finding information or products for you are doing niche marketing research. You can do this manually by researching key words and key word phrases that people might be using  to find products or information with. Then when you find what people are looking for you can research how much competition is providing what these people are looking for. The more people looking for information with very few site-builders filling that need is called a niche. With software available today the niche marketing research can be done much faster and you can help to fill the niche.