Might there be some hidden advantages in targeting some of the lesser known search engines for traffic or business?

Well it is possible that you could have some advantages, however you must look in the perspective of someone who uses search engines. What is the really and truthfully only used ones. Well that would be Google,Yahoo, and MSN. To be honest I don't see how trying to get it the word out on a "small" traffic search engine would be very useful. The 3 I listed are the only way to go when trying to optimise your site for search engines.

i say, not enough to make a difference. i say go for the big 3.

i agree with tonyb. go for the big guns. google, yahoo, msn. the rest will follow.

If you can get ranked high on the big 3 most likely you will be ranked high on the smaller ones, whereas if you targeted the small ones you might not be high on the big 3. So definitely go for Yahoo, MSN, Google.

I don't think so without top three search engines we can get extra advantages from lesser known search engines. Even you don't found some good traffic from it.

Well if you got a good ranking i guess top of the small could get you the same amount of hits as average of a biggie. So yeah i think there are advantages esp as most dont target them so you have the chance to get more coverage.