Slow, but very pretty searching with SearchCrystal

A new alternative search engine that caught my eye this morning is SearchCrystal, a very experimental-looking tool that combines multiple search engines in a rich visual design. Each search engine gets its own color code, and results that show up in a large circle. When an item is listed on more than one search engine, it's given its own geometric shape showing which engines picked it up, along with lines that link up identical results. The goal is to give you a visualized results page that lets you compare a few engines at a time without having to scroll down one large list.

Results in SearchCrystal show up in a number of ways, including this neat clustery mashup mode.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The results are split up into five different areas--one for each search engine. These engines vary by what you're searching for, be it photos, videos, news, or blog postings. In the case of blogs, SearchCrystal will pull results from Sphere, Bloglines, Google Blog search, Technorati, and BlogPulse. There's also a mode to just view Wikipedia articles. Each string shows the top 10 results in order, with the ones closer to the middle of the sphere being more important. The end result makes it look similar to a dartboard.

The one real hurdle with SearchCrystal is that it's slow. Most searches took about ten seconds a pop, with the longest taking just over 20 seconds. This is just simply too long for a casual search. Likewise, it has a learning curve--you're probably going to stare at the swarm of results the first time you try it out before knowing what you're supposed to do. While not difficult to pick up, I can see someone like my mom not knowing where to start.

As usual, there's a Facebook app for SearchCrystal. You can also e-mail it, or embed it in a blog or site with the query of your choice, which I've done after the break.

Related: Five weird ways to see search: Quintura, Clusty, and more

[CharlesSKnight]

AltSearchEngines

Hi,

I believe I saw a great post about searchCrystal on AltSearchEngines.com, too. Nice review of a cool app!

Charles Knight, editor
AltSearchEngines.com

[searchCrystal]

A note on searchCrystal's speed/performance

Thank you for reviewing searchCrystal and embedding a crystal on the page :)
searchCrystal performance depends on which specific engines are compared. Web engines return results the fastest, whereas some blog or tagging engines can take up to 20 seconds to respond (especially if advanced search functions are used).
Of course, we are continuously working on improving searchCrystal's performance to minimize load and processing times.
searchCrystal is an experimental service and any feedback on how to improve it would be very welcome: [e-mail].

For those who want more "search power", please check out our full version, which is free and lets you compare up to 500 results, add comments and share and compare saved crystals with your friends.
You can also compare RSS feeds of your choice, where related items are grouped using clustering techniques, or create crystals of your Flickr images.

[searchCrystal]

searchCrystal's speed/performance

Thank you for reviewing searchCrystal and embedding a crystal on the page :)
searchCrystal performance depends on which specific engines are compared. Web engines return results the fastest, whereas some blog or tagging engines can take up to 20 seconds to respond (especially if advanced search functions are used).
Of course, we are continuously working on improving searchCrystal's performance to minimize load and processing times.
searchCrystal is an experimental service and any feedback on how to improve it would be very welcome: [e-mail].
For those who want more "search power", please check out our full version, which is free and lets you compare up to 500 results, add comments and share and compare saved crystals with your friends. You can also compare RSS feeds of your choice, where related items are grouped using clustering techniques, or create crystals of your Flickr images.