Search interfaces of tomorrow you can try today
Surely there's more to search than this.
One of the weird things about using Google's 2001 index is that the experience of using the current version of the search engine is much the same as it was back then.
Yes, Google has steadily and carefully evolved the search results page since its launch in 1998. There are now more graphics on the page (for image results, YouTube videos, stock charts, and the like), and there are links to specialized search indexes (News, Images, Books, etc.). But the basics of the search results page are the same: a string of text links with excerpts underneath them. (The major competitive engines from Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask.com are much the same.)
Sure, the lightweight page design is one of the things that makes Google blindingly fast. But once you have the search index working well, maybe there's more you can do with the interface than make it fast. Maybe it's time for change. Maybe the Web's users can handle it now.
Making a graphical Google isn't easy, though. You can't just slap a bunch of page images onto a search results and walk away. But to see what a contemporary search result page could look like, check out these newer search engines, listed in order of bad to good.
Redzee offers a single Coverflow-like view of search result pages. The concept has grown on me since I first panned the service in January, but the site's utility is still lacking. It's slow to display results, and the images it shows are too small to include readable text, so you have to judge the results based on the overall design of the site thumbnails you're looking at. That just doesn't work. (Review)
Worth using? Not really.
Redzee: too slow and screenshots are too small.
Nexplore uses Yahoo as its search engine for Web pages, Blinkx for video, and its own servers for Wikipedia. Like Ask.com, it categorizes search results in the left-hand navigation bar, which is very useful. Its special trick is its "gallery" view of search results, in which it displays thumbnails of the results in an easy-to-grok grid view. Its standard "summary" displays text results like Google, but with screenshots that pop up when you hover over search results. I found most of the displays busy and distracting.
Worth using? I don't find the service very appealing and have no plans to go back.
Nexplore: it's on to something, but still too busy.
Viewzi is a collection of visual search experiments. With about 20 different views of search results including a clever multi-engine view that overlays identical results from different engines, and a straightforward Coverflow-like screenshot view, it showcases different ways to see search. (Review)
Worth using? It feels more like a science project than a tool you'll want to use every day, but some of the views are really clever.
Viewzi: several search experiments in one place.
Cuil displays a very attractive and useful search result page but still gets things wrong by occasionally attaching images to results that come from places other than the results themselves. The search results themselves are much improved from the initial embarrassing launch, but the occasional mixed-up images could leave you scratching your head. (Story)
Worth using? Worth a shot, if you ignore the pictures.
Cuil: a more modern look to traditional search results.
Searchme is a genuinely useful visual search engine. It shows giant site pictures with readable text, and it has very strong categorization and bookmarking features. It is graphically intensive and requires a modern computer, a big screen, and a broadband connection, but it is a very good alternative to the Google less-is-more approach to searching.
Worth using? Definitely worth a try.
Searchme: big images and clever features make this visual search work.
Piclens, which changed its name last month to Cooliris, isn't a general search engine like the other products in this roundup. It's a plug-in for Firefox and Internet Explorer that lets you search for and display photos and videos from specific sources like Flickr, Google Images, YouTube, and Amazon.com. I'm including it here because it offers such a smooth and gorgeous experience for searching for visual data. Of the products in this review, it's the only one I use all the time. (Review)
Worth using? Absolutely.
Piclens, now known as Cooliris: puts your PC's graphics horsepower to good use.
See also: Yahoo India's Glue.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. 
somehow they seem like they are all lipstick on a pig.
At the end of the day relevant, simple and fast results will beat any and all eye candy.
Now that one actually looks really useful, shame they don't support more browsers though.
I'd say Viewzi looks pretty interesting too.
A big open view of several sites at the same time is what really needs to be done, rather than maybe one main view and other smaller sites placed to the side.
When internet speeds get faster in the next few decades, i would love to see how searching would evolve on it.
Take a look at http://www.luckyasme.com , also based on Yahoo BOSS. It'll give you a page deeper in the search results that you might not have visited with another search engine.
What would be real;y innovative (and Google among others are working on it) is leaving text strings mostly behind and using voice, images, etc as the input to get the output.
"Computer, find out what type of spider this is." {raises spider}
Google is like my home, i visit more than 10+ times per day to search results. to make a contrast, its like orgainizing your room, its not necessary true that everyone likes putting posters, electronics, photo albums...etc declarations to make yourself more "artist" or "cool". on the other hand, clean and neat is what i am looking for
but I just couldn't get it to work on youtube, anything I put there it says it couldn't find, including when I put it on the regular youtube search, I do find results but when i clcik the cooliris button, it says the site isn't supported
http://www.oxysearch.com/search.aspx?q=Cnet&st=web
It's a meta engine with Google, Yahoo, ASk and MSFT but also adds other search verticals. Universal style results page. It's got more content than other meta engines like Dogpile. More interesting.
Yes, the graphics are by contemporary standards a little weak, but the grouping concepts behind the search engine are unique and kinda neat - and will lead you to other concepts and sources as wel. Give it a try!
Jalis
- by jennyatcooliris October 8, 2008 11:21 AM PDT
- Hi Rafe,
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(14 Comments)Thanks so much for writing about us! We truly appreciate it!
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoy using Cooliris! We've got lots more in store, so stay tuned.
Thanks again,
Jenny & The Cooliris Team