Perhaps the biggest and most obvious flaw of today’s search engine’s is that they still require you to do multiple clicks (sometimes, even Google) in order to get to what you’re really looking for. And with the number of indexed SPAM sites steadily increasing everyday, the problem of having irrelevant pages at the top spot in queries seems more difficult to solve than ever. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could see all the pages resulting from your query without having to leave the search results page? I’m sure it would, and SearchMe, a new kind of visual search engine, is out to do just that. It’s about time the Web really got to 2.0, after all.
With a user-interface that looks surprisingly familiar (especially if you’re a Mac user), SearchMe offers visual versions of the pages that result from user queries, available for view even without clicking through the page. Aside from the screenshots that come up during queries, an option for a “list view” view where results are listed down the page like a conventional search engine is available as well.
Currently, SearchMe is available for private beta testing (you can sign up on the SearchMe Homepage). And like any other startup, it’s surely going to take some time before experiencing worldwide adoption. But still, it would be interesting to see what Google will do to keep up. Personally, I think all those “relevant ads” won’t even be half enough.
Via [TechCrunch] Via [Gizmodo]
You know, I rarely use coverflow on my iPod touch cause it is just not that efficient. I thought this would be the same, until I watched the demo.
This could end up being pretty cool. The company seems to be very humble, "we are not Google"; do you think they are just angling to be bought at an early stage or just really that humble?
Selling to Google would be a good idea, until you realize SearchMe just might have the ability to BECOME the next Google. I'm guessing the "we are not Google" comment was just a play on Google's very own "Don't be evil" philosophy which squarely aims at Microsoft being a tyrant.
I agree with you that this could end up being really cool, especially when you think how lame current search engines are (Google might be the lamest with its stark white backdrop). But of course, there's not enough data to really know for sure what will happen next. Time will tell…