One possibility is that the company could try to counter some of Microsoft’s recent momentum in the search market by making a push into the verticals that Bing is targeting. Those include shopping, travel, health, local, and entertainment. By buying ITA Software, Google will be able to match Bing in travel. The company already has offerings in local (through Google Maps), entertainment (through its music deals), in shopping (through product search), and health (through Google Health).

That doesn’t mean that Google couldn’t make much bigger moves in those areas, however. Google’s entertainment offerings, for instance, are inferior to those of Bing, which recently gave its own a facelift. In its current incarnation, Google Health is focused on storing medical information and not on providing health search results—something which sites like Healthline are doing well. As for local, earlier this year, Google tried unsuccessfully to buy Yelp, which would likely have been integrated with Maps in some way.

A search vertical we know Google is interested in expanding into is real estate search—an area in which general search tools aren’t sufficient, because of the many inputs involved (location, price range, type of home, etc). The company has expanded its real estate listings in Maps and late last year it was said to be in talks to buy real estate search engine Trulia.

Related is the possibility that Google could make a bigger play in mortgage search—another area where a one word query just won’t do. Already, the company is giving people who search for the term “mortgage” some additional options to refine their search, although those are currently formatted as an ad.

When it comes to large consumer purchases which people research online, another big market is autos, where Google has no presence and is instead dominated by sites like AutoTrader and Cars.com. In his report, Anmuth mentions credit cards and insurance searches as possibilities too.

Others?