I have been teaching our students about how to best use search engines and also showing them some alternatives to Google. As homework the boys had to complete some note taking exercises using SearchMe, Viewzi and Cuil.The students loved the visual search engines and even though they were searching and taking notes from the sites they located, they were totally engrossed during the last period for the day. Note taking was not that well received before.

One student completed the work and uploaded it to the appropriate workspace. When the work was checked, the boy had used Google to complete the task. When asked why this was the case, the reply was that his mother had seen SearchMe and told him to "get off that site and use Google!" He tried to explain but she was convinced that he was not right and it was not an appropriate tool for him to be using.

It begs the question, why did she not think that SearchMe was a valid search engine? Did it look like too much fun? Did it just look too different? Has the Google marketing machine really taken over in our collective consciousness?

I am working on an on-line survey, in which I will ask our students to evaluate the search engines we have used this year. Perhaps I will have to extend any survey to the parents of our students as well.

O Searchme pode até não ser a mais eficiente ferramenta de busca da Internet, mas certamente representa um grande avanço quando o termo "busca" é remetido e até mesmo uma perspectiva diferente da parte dos internautas para as futuras versões de ferramentas como o Google e o Yahoo! Search. O Searchme trata-se de uma página na qual você pode fazer uma pesquisa específica (em inglês, claro) e listar os resultados de maneira diferente: em 3D. Muitos podem confundir ou assimilar o formato do site com os álbuns do iTunes.
Eu, francamente, acho que muitos sites do gênero não deixam de fazer sucesso pelo seu formato, e sim por algo chamado "globalização". Quantas vezes ainda iremos nos deparar por páginas do gênero que tem tudo para fazer sucesso, mas que não incluem esse simples e importante fator ao alcance dos visitantes? Globalization, não. Globalização!
Abaixo, o vídeo de apresentação do Searchme comentado:

SearchMe

• Search Accuracy       ♥♥♥
• Search Visuals          ♥♥♥♥
• Search Functionality ♥♥♥♥

Beautiful public beta site which allows the user to explore web results in full size text and image pages - scroll through the page results, review the associated text and add to your stacks.

The 'stack options' allow the user to pick up web pages from the 'scroll view' and drop them into a named stack such as the latest news in technology, then save your stacks, share with your friends, add more to the stack or keep on searching. A beautiful visual search experience which can include static pages and video from sites such as YouTube.

Quintura Search

• Search Accuracy        ♥♥♥♥
• Search Visuals           ♥♥♥♥
• Search Functionality  ♥♥♥

Amazing beta concept site for visual search using word association to refine search results. From an initial keyword it is possible to scroll over the associated 'floating' keywords to choose the best string for the ultimate search result. Works rapidly to reduce the word cloud to workable constraints. I was so taken by this search engine that I embedded it into my own website...

Tag Galaxy

• Search Accuracy        ♥♥♥♥
• Search Visuals           ♥♥♥♥
• Search Functionality  ♥♥♥♥

Still not satisfied? Try an amazing Flickr photo search with this inspirational piece of application programming for the ultimate in visual searching experience.

Just enter the keyword for the images you seek - then explore the planets in this cosmic engine with high visual appeal

Search -defined by the looking, seeking, hunting, prying, scouring, rifling, sifting, combing, checking, frisking, pursuing, rummaging and ferreting

Thanks to the power of the great thinkers and explorers on the web - Search - is now more entertaining, useful and appealing than ever before. I would like to share some of the great 'alternative' ways to forage for information hidden in pixel land

In order to review the cosmos that is 'Search' we must first define the means and applications by which we are able to employ or sifting and refining strategies. There are currently an ever expanding number of ways in which we can explore our pixelated universe....the beginning is now

• Visual search - Search with a twist, a visual feast to hold your attention whilst divining the pixel portal. Sites such as Quintura.com, Searchme.com and tagGalaxy.de fill my searching senses with joy.
• Metasearch - Search aggregation offers the ability to perform multiple searches on the same search term within the same browser (e.g. Zuula.com) or to aggregate searches with combined results (Scour.com or WBsearch.com)
• Refined Search - Search within your field of expert requirements from areas as diverse as health information to mythical legends! This area also covers audio/music searching as previously discussed.
• Designer Search - Create, collate and refine your own individual search engine with sites such as Samfind.com and Rollyo.com
• The Future of Search - Semantic search and verticals are being developed which will change the way we search forever. Looking forward to sharing Hakia, SematiNet, the Very Clever Search Engine and True Knowledge

SearchMe es un buscador web... otro? simon... nomas que este esta nice porque los resultados son Thumbnails (fotos chirris) de las paginas a demas, las muestra como un cover flow...

En lo personal, creo que no mejora los resultados de búsqueda de Google... pero si usan Compiz ó un manejador gráfico chido se acopla el diseño muy padre.

http://www.searchme.com/

Saludos.

I can really use this at home. This is great, let me save it to my favourites. I am going to set this as my main search page. I want to show Dad what you can find when you use this!

These are comments from year 7 students about search engines! Not about some of the other great tools they are also using. Today I have shown yet more students the visual search engines SearchMe and Viewzi and another Year 7 class these search engines as well as using the advanced search option in Google. We began with using Google to find information on Ancient Egypt and then moved on to the other two search engines. I also used Viewzi with a year 7 class last Friday and they were again impressed with it. After showing them the different views, I had them using the video view and the 4 sources view. They appreciate the benefits of viewing the page before opening it up fully and compared the pages they found very easily. They students worked their way through various keyword searches and tried different different search engines and views.
In last Friday's class we also used Cuil, and we had some fun with some of the results. Typed in "Oblong" and had no mathematical hits but the class then thought to put in "oblong shape"and they got the required information. The "wrong" results are great discussion points and learning tools. They are getting the hang of thinking carefully about search terms/keywords. The students liked the results they go when looking for cuneiform (part of their Sumer study). For one thing, it seemed to help them with their spelling of unfamiliar terms. This same class that worked with SearchMe the previous week and we only had time for the bare basics. They went on to use it in the days between the classes, with satisfying results.(their impression as well as mine). In all cases the students and the teachers really like the idea of saving the sites they find into the SearchMe

All of the the various students, mostly juniors but also some seniors, I have shown the visual search engines are seeing beyond basic Google to other options. They have also tried Mooter and iBoogie. The clustering interested them but SearchMe, for instance, offers a little of that as well as other benefits. I have begun to work on a follow-up, by creating a space for questions or prompts with online data collection. This will allow our students can critique the search engines they have been using, once they have had a little more time using each, and make comments and suggestions. I explained what a Beta version was and now they want to know if their comments and suggestions can also be sent to the designers.

One comment from a year 7 student was "I guess the search engine I decide to use will depend on what I am looking for" that's a comment I am very happy to hear.

SearchMe shows the results of a search in a rolodex format (using Adobe Flash). A photo of each page returned form the elements in the rolodex. There is a dragging bar using which you can flip through the rolodex. You can also use the mouse wheel or the arrow keys on your keyboard. Quite interesting to say the least. The rolodex display however has a disadvantage. A user can see only limited results on the screen at once. Worry not for SearchMe has a solution. Right below the dragbar is a small button clicking which the screen splits horizontally. On the top is the rolodex view and at the bottom is the more conventional search results in a list. These two views are connected. So if you use the rolodex at the top, the list at the bottom scrolls accordingly and vice versa. Nice feature.

SearchMe introduces the concept of search stacks. A stack is basically a set of search results. So if you want to create a list of some of the result items, all you do is drag and drop them onto a new stack. Afterwards, you can browse through the stacks that you created.

The home page of SearchMe is pretty spartan with a search box and list of some of the popular stacks. While typing in a search term SearchMe displays relevant categories in a horizontal list right below the search box. Quite useful.

Here's a video that gives you a demo of the search engine, but I suggest that you take a look at it for yourself at http://www.searchme.com.

Few people stop to think about the fact that "The Google Way" is not the only way to search for information. Indeed, lots of folks are working hard on alternatives to Google. One notable example is Cuil (pronounced "cool"), the brainchild of former Google employees. It arrived on the scene a couple weeks ago, but only to mixed reviews.

Another exciting area of search engine development is in the display of results (the buzz words are "visual search" or "visualization"). Here are a couple sites that do very cool things with your search queries:

• Viewzi

• Searchme

• Kartoo

• Ujiko

Give these sites a try sometime when you have the urge to Google, or if you're feeling especially librarianish, compare your results in Google with those from a visual search engine. Go ahead, be bold! Think outside the Google.

When I did the same search in Cuil, I retrieved three results.  Not very helpful.  I think they're still working the bugs out on that.

But I like Search Me.  It's great for doing image searches, and also provides little icons to let you search the items that have been grouped by page.  You can also create a "stack," which from my limited exploring seems to be a way to produce visual bookmarks.

Has anyone else used this search engine before?

"Welcome to Cuil—the world’s biggest search engine. The Internet has grown. We think it’s time search did too."

Another "IMBA" search result at cuil - slightly more results this time for "animorphosis (google results)" - this has nothing to do with my blog, just searched for the depth of the index. See for yourself:) 417 results, hardly any relavence.

So, yes! phew! Gosh! ... thats a terrific experience. They do one thing good. Narrow the options for you. I mean who needs "googlian" results to choose from, and then sometimes its good not to show proper results ... people hardly read books anymore. What has Cuil got to say about it? Here what:

The Internet has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years but search engines have not kept up—until now. Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.

Like hell :). That was Cuil for you.

Now what k00L is searchMe. With their on-going research on ontology and fasionable (visual) results (stacks and all), they have managed to impress me a lot more than Cuil could and obviously less than google did( for relavance reasons i.e.). Ontology is something i think Google misses right now and the future of search will have ontology as a quintessential part of it. Here is a quickie with search me:

A lot of people find searchme cumbersome, if not useless at first. This is largely because we, right now, are not used to this. When you first type a word on searchMe, it instantly returns categories. For me that is a massive advantage and lowers my search time, something google might have planned with "Im feeling lucky" but did not fly as such (unless you know what you are searching). For example, techCrunch's analysis of Cuil vs Google mentioned searching "apple" and neither returned the fruit but if you try it on searchMe, you can instantly narrow it down to your required category (software, hardware, plant...what not!). It redefines the search for us. I term it Kool! (pun intended ofcourse!).

Now for those who think I am biased with google and searchMe and still think Cuil is flying, here are some results from Google (yes, shameless-self-praise-whatever!)

Now thats plain and simple, "cool" :)

Na semana passada, um dos assuntos de maior destaque na imprensa foi o lançamento do Cuil, um site de busca feito por ex-funcionários do Google. Chamou atenção a acolhida do tema até em locais não-comuns para divulgar tal assunto, como o caderno de economia do jornal Folha de S. Paulo.

Destacava-se as supostas qualidades do serviço, como fornecer buscas mais abrangentes e baseadas no contexto, e por isso mais relevantes que as do Google. O Cuil indexaria três vezes mais páginas do que o líder do segmento. Ao todo, 120 bilhões de sites.

De toda forma, no dia seguinte o enfoque mudou, centrando-se na crítica ao serviço, como trazer poucas respostas para os termos buscados. Características positivas do site, como não armazenar dados pessoais do usuário (prática do Google), já tinham sido esquecidos.

Afora isso, os serviços de busca estão ficando cada vez mais parecidos. Não me refiro aos resultados, mas sim à estruturação da informação. É necessário buscar novas propostas visuais. Nisso, o site Searchme (imagem acima), que foi lançado no começo desse ano em versão de teste, se sobressai. Com ele, é possível folhear os resultados da busca.

Há mais: procurando por vídeos, além de trazer o resultado, você pode assisti-lo sem visitar a página em que ele está hospedado. Bem mais interessante que o badalado - por um dia - Cuil.

Evidentemente, o foco de tais serviços deve ser a busca por informações de qualidade. O que pode ser feito de forma mais atraente.

Me ha gustado mucho el funcionamiento de este buscador, aunque esta limitado ya que se trata de una versión beta. Nos dará la posibilidad de buscar webs, vídeos o imágenes; presentando todos los resultados de manera visual, recuerda un poco al sistema Flip de Windows Aero, o el Coverflow del iPod, lo que más me ha sorprendido a sido la velocidad de carga, había probado otros sistemas parecidos pero todos resultaban un tanto pobres visualmente y en funciones, por supuesto Searchme no va ha quitarle el trono a Google, pero es un concepto a explotar.

Página Oficial, Serachme.

http://www.searchme.com

Mary Ellen Bates just recommended it in the recent release of her newsletter, which I recommend to everyone...see previous post.

Love, love, love SearchMe. It's info-crack.

The first one is a visual search engine called SearchMe which provides categories as and when you type your search string. Say you type the word Liverpool - what you get are categories like sports, business, weather, history, libraries etc. Once you select a category you are provided with relevant pages relating to the selected category. But that's not the best part. What's so different about this search engine is that you can actually get a full preview of all page results in the form of a slideshow-like photo album. It's still in beta stage but I suggest you take a look yourself http://www.searchme.com

The second link which I really liked is MoshiMonster. It's basically a game where you adopt a friendly monster and take care of it - like a virtual pet. It wasn't the concept which impressed me - rather it was the way the website has been designed - asthetically pleasing and very user friendly. It's a pleasure - the signing-up process is fun - take a look http://www.moshimonsters.com

Randy has said in many interviews, and in the lecture itself, that he wrote it for his three young children who are 2, 4 and 6.  If there's one thing you get from listening to Randy speak it's the understanding that we need to remember what's really important in our lives. We can get tied up in the problems surrounding us and the busy pace of our lives and we need to make sure we make the time for the people who matter. Just last week my son wanted me to accompany him on an excursion with his school. I said I couldn't because I was too busy at work. He was disappointed. Today I'm thinking that I should have taken a day off and shared that experience with my 9 yr old son. I can't get that time back now. Is my workplace going to fall apart if I'm not there for a day?  No, it's not. 

Barbara Locke,  a Search Analyst at Searchme has created this stack as a tribute to Randy Pausch. Take some time out to watch, listen and reflect.