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.

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.

Giovanni knows that Twitter is a great tool for optimising the coverage his search engine gets. Take a look at these tweets he posted on twitter this afternoon (evening his time).

I'm not criticising, I think he's smart to be recognising the potential of the microblogging tool that twitter is. If I had something to sell I'd be doing it too!

Anyway, back to the new views Viewzi are offering. First up is news view. It's been around for a few weeks now. News sources they use are USA today, The New York Times, CNN, Reuters and Yahoo. A fairly heavy US concentration so be aware of this. I did a search for Stephanie Rice, an Australian swimmer who picked up a gold medal this morning at the Beijing Olympics. Of the nine results that feature on the first of the results pages, three were specific to Stephanie and the other six had Michael Phelps as their focus. Perhaps not the best news search engine choice if you're looking for Australian content. I did another search for Georgia Russia given the troubles emanting from this part of the world and got returns that would be useful for students investigating this situation. I like the way the results are delivered; you get the headline and the opening paragraph and can click on read more to redirect you to the source article. At the bottom of the page you get an indication of the amount of pages Viewzi has loaded delivering returns for your search query.

The newest 'view' they have offered is timeline view. This, I think, could be a handy view for educational purposes. Here's the result for Georgia Russia that I did this afternoon;

You can see the concentration of results that are a response to recent happenings. Ealier results in the timeline would be interesting for students to look at to track the development of the crisis. Great for classes studying international events. I'll be remembering this view so that I can point students to it when they are investigating issues in the news.

Viewzi is an interesting search engine. There is so much choice, perhaps a little too much. It's a search engine you need to spend time investigating so that you can use it to its best potential.

Viewzi, es un buscador vizual que integra la interfaz llamativa y seductora con un lindo motor de busqueda...
Posee la modalidad de un timeline sonde se ván cargando los resultados de las busquedas...
Una opción más, linda, interesante, a tener en cuenta...

And while that insight involved an online entity, which provided a free service, it also got me thinking on purchase decisions regarding low cost 'real' items, like say, matchboxes or sometimes, even toothpaste. To justify the latter, I don't make a decision before I go shopping, we check out the stuff available at the retail outlet, but within a set of brands we normally use.

And coincidentally, I saw the latest online effort from Colgate, via their Facebook app. The Facebook app is based on a game they have on the site - Kayak. You can read a review of the effort here. I will not get into  checkbox marketing, I've been doing that for over a year now, the earliest rant being this. The site is connected via a contest with the TVC that's being aired currently (which also advertises the site) and stars Bruna Abdullah. As for the contest, if you win, you have a chance to get fresh with Bruna. Woo!! (okay, i made that up because i couldn't resist the maxfresh name connection, but yes, you do get a date with Bruna) ;)

Someone's got the right intentions, because this is not Colgate's only attempt to rally the internet. I chanced to see this sometime back. (via Medianama). I liked the dental expert touch, and am happy for the efforts, though I have a different perspective. For example, though MaxFresh is a youth brand, the primary benefit is dental care and a cool Facebook App could very well be built on that parameter. But yes, while the net is definitely useful, very few brands have learnt to use it to their advantage.

So, what's the way forward for 'commodity' brands? One is to pretend that the internet doesn't exist and continue trying to shout the loudest and get the customer's attention. Two is to include digital in the marketing effort, but as an adaptation of the Print creative. Three is to devise a digital strategy, that's in line with the overall brand strategy but not an adaptation. I would love to see brands that take the last route, because I see a great sync with the way social media is working.

What if brands go back to Step 1 and start looking at the product? Isn't that where the differentiation can be brought in, rather than from a communication that will stay in the consumer mind only till a louder one from the competitor or anyone else looking for the same consumer's mindshare, comes along? Use the internet to gather insights from people who are interested in your brand, create stories around the brand, utilise those insights to make the product better, to make variations and satisfy the niches that lie hidden in the long tail, to make your communication more appealing. That's what the internet allows you to do. Obviously, each brand would have its own criteria of critical mass that even a niche should have for it to operate in that space, but the good news is that we operate in India, and sometimes 1% of this market would be the population of a country. And while on India and retail, would love some info on what exactly these guys are doing - Blinkmagic. Everyone who i chatted with, among those who attended the recent edition of Proto only had good things to say about them.

Meanwhile, what happens when the 'commodity' brand's variations start hitting the market? Obviously, existing retail space cannot handle all of this. And if the tail wags the dog, it could have really bad results as Al Ries has observed here. But where I disagree with the article is that the rampant flavour proliferation is a bad thing, or is a reason to junk the 'long tail' way of thinking. I see it as a challenge that retail and brands need to address. I'm sure someone will find a way to tweak the traditional distributor-dealer network to address the needs of the tail. After all, technology is definitely making its way into retail, in a big way, in India. :)

I wonder how internet brands will handle 'commoditisation' when it happens to them, I can already see it happening in a few areas. Will they need another media to help them out?

We started with a search engine, so we'll end with one. Check out a new search engine I came across - Viewzi

until next time, be refreshingly original

]]> http://johnwelsh.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/nj-video-news-updates-ledger-live-njcom/ Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:34:21 +0000 John Welsh http://johnwelsh.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/nj-video-news-updates-ledger-live-njcom/ [/caption]

A week since it kicked off, and, on Ledger Live, Brian Donohue shows just how cool a daily 'cast should Remember the New Jersey paper's website is using locals and its ace reporter to create "citzen journalism".
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1449086&w=425&h=350&fv=]

I have much to learn on These Digital Times Daily or anyone else looking to develop a daily 'cast about personality and creativity. But

• who is ever going to beat the dismembered doll?
• and note how Donohue uses Twitter to get his message across

Read more about Ledger Live and how Brian Donohue uses Twitter, click here.

WHITEvoid has developed a cool image navigator for Viewzi, as always it's a brilliant work and something that I might actually use, it's fluid and it does help the visualization of large sets of data.

Be sure to check it out at:http://www.viewzi.com/search/whitevoid-photocloud/

(I added the arrows in the above screenshot!)

Today I was teaching our Yr 7 students about researching effectively. We were exploring keywords for search and I showed them Searchme. I wanted them to see how they could use Searchme's stacks to collect webpages and keep a record of the websites they find useful for their investigative research.

These students had seen Searchme and Viewzi when I introduced them to these new search engines a couple of weeks ago.  As I was moving around the room one of them told me she uses Searchme as her default search engine now. The real magic happened when I demonstrated how you save the pages to a stack that you have created. They were won over in that instant. They spent the rest of the lesson dragging relevant pages to stacks they had created. They all were drawn in by the fact that you have the page loaded and can see your search results as a page view. You can start to make assessment as to whether or not the resource might be relevant. They got the idea really quickly that stacks were a means of collating your research so that you could go back and peruse in depth when you were ready to tackle questions that needed addressing. A couple of them made mention that this would help in making sure that the bibliographic data you needed was accessible -they did note that they should be collecting this along the way and should not leave the construction of a bibliography until the last minute! All of them thought it was very cool that you could save videos and images to your stacks as well as standard webpages.

I was using Google last night to collate links for a wiki page I was putting together for our study of 'Little Women'. I wanted my students to get some grasp of the period and was searching for Amercian Civil War links. Google wasn't returning what I was looking for so I turned to Mahalo. Surprisingly the page for American Civil War has not been fully fleshed out -I was surprised anyway. I went to Searchme thinking the returns would be so so but was pleasantly surprised. I found myself loving the full page view and being able to flick through results so easily. Within minutes I'd found what I was looking for at appropriate levels of understanding for my students and my wiki links were completed.   

Have to say I've been pleasantly surprised by the results from Searchme. I keep expecting mediocre results but am finding relevant pages appearing. The speed at which I can assess a resource is a real winner for me and I'm guessing it's going to be for my students as well. I'll be very interested to watch their adoption of these new alternatives to traditional search.

Viewzi.com is a great new experience in searching the web, that is very engaging, visually attractive and cuts browsing time.

You simply type in your search query, and then you get to select a specific view to see your results, for instance the Web Screenshot View will look like this:

You can browse easily from one search result to the next and view a screen shot of the resulting page, right from where you are, instead of the back and forth you do with the regular search interface.

Even their Simple Text view includes thumbnails of each search result, the more you scroll down the more results they fetch!

Another amazing view is 4 Sources view, where they bring search results from Yahoo, Google, Ask and MSN in one screen! You can filter between  the 4 sources and select which ones to show...

I personally enjoyed checking Site Information View that gets you traffic information, recent tweets, search results...etc. associated with the site you are inquiring about

It seems that each view was made by a different person, but I couldn't find information related to any API or tools that enables outside developers to create a view, maybe they just want to share the product team identities who worked on each view.

Try it its fun!

Superman - This type of personality is a go-getter, and rightfully so, because there is seemingly little that he (or she) cannot accomplish. They make for ideal freelancers, because they offer the “total” solution. As with Superman, they are personable, but work best in isolation and left to their own methods.

Hancock(new film with Will Smith) - It’s that prima donna who has the latent potential of a Superman, if not for the giant ego and disregard for team play. I think that all talented people can fall prey to this mentality – blinded by an overestimation of one’s own abilities, to the point of self dilution, marginalizing assistance from others. Yet, there is redemption to be found, as in the storyline of Batman Begins.

Turtles- This brings me to the third category, the Ninja Turtles. These unlikely heroes thrive on community. Alone, they are each formidable in their own right, but together they are greater than just a sum total. Each has a specific area of mastery, but there is a good deal of overlap. After all, part of being a ninja is having proficiency with an array of weaponry. Andy Budd said it best:

Watch out, because ninja personalities become exponentially more effective when inspired by visionary leadership.

Which one are you?

Thanks Viewzi, we love it!

Happily, none of this is preventing people from doing some wily, aspirational things with search. The most compelling (if maddeningly flawed) example I've seen is called Viewzi, which has just opened itself to the public after a buzzy closed beta.

Short version: It's a visual search tool that offers 15 [!] different ways to view search results. It's a dazzler, a hum-dinger, a Halloween bagful of eye candy. If you're a flash developer, a dataviz geek or a distractable noodler, you'll find it irresistible. Viewzi makes Google's results look like Braille.

Put a query in the search box, and a ribbon of blurry choices spreads across the screen: Basic Photo View, VideoX3 View, 4 Sources View, and more. [Note: Since this is an application built in flash, I can't provide specific URLs to any of these features. If you click on the images below they'll take you to a new search box. You'll need to conduct a search yourself to see the features I'm discussing.]

Below is the 4 Sources view, which presents screen shots of results harvested from Google, Yahoo, Live and Ask. I can't understate the goofy pleasure I get rearranging and digging among these results. Bonus: You can see immediately which results the engines share, value differently, bury, etc. SEOers will dig it.

But the most powerful--and potentially disruptive--feature is something called 3-D Photo Cloud view. It has a creepy, responsive intelligence that I find affecting in ways I can't explain. It somehow creates the unsettling impression of knowledge accumulating in real time, of neural pathways proliferating as you watch, of an infobeing gathering power as it grows. [I have not been drinking anything stronger than coffee while writing this, I swear. This thing is freaky.]

The Viewzi project has the feel of an open-source playground, a platform where search geeks and datavizualists can create new ways of organizing information visually. This may turn out to be the real value of Viewzi--a kind of Challenge X for visual search that inspires some serious bug-eyed innovation. [Or not: There's already evidence of creativity being stretched thin over commercial ambitions: There are Celebrity Photo, Weather, Recipe, Shopping and TechCrunch (?) views. Can a FaceBookNewsFeedView (sm) be far away?]

Meantime, I tried Viewzi for some "real" searches I'd recently done on health, a recent political poll, an old friend from college, some tax stuff, a vintage car. Here's what I realized: Most searchers are harshly pragmatic, unforgiving of excessive keystrokes and distractions. Google is perfect for the drive-by infosnag.

Viewzi offers some simple search views for mundane topics, the most servicable of which is the Web Screenshot View, which allows you to scroll through images of results pages. It's slower and more annoying than Google, but it allows you to preview a source before you click into it.

Google rules the everyday search. But if you have the need or leisure to dig into a topic and explore it from a bunch of different sides, Viewzi has plenty to offer. Block out two hours on Outlook and close your door. You'll be awhile.

But if anything funny crawls out of that 3-D  Photo Cloud and attaches itself to your forehead like a tick, don't blame me. I warned you.

My search term was whaling and 15 possible windows presented themselves for opening. There are a variety of mediums for you to select from; MP3 files, video files, Reuter's News view,  Web screenshot view, Simple Text view with rankings from Alexa, Google and Yahoo, 4 sources view which searches Ask, Google, MSN and Yahoo and many others including photo sites, Amazon and even cookbooks!

Here's what the page looks like when you select video files;

You can remove tags from the results page and this will eliminate videos that are tagged with that term. A good visual way of teaching students how you can narrow a search according to key words you use. There's no doubt this is a busy search engine with a plethora of options that may be a bit overwhelming for the novice searcher. However I do think it's another great way to demonstrate to our students that there is more out there than their usual default search engine of choice.

As John Connell and Clenda pointed out in comments on my Searchme post, the results you get may be a bit hit and miss at this stage. These search engines are in beta and need time to develop into something great. I'm still going to give them a go -I think they've got the engagement factor that can get our students excited about search and may go a long way toward leading them to new learning opportunities that they may have missed if they'd just scanned through the first page of results from their text based search engine. Give Viewzi a try.    

What is Viewzi?

Viewzi is a whole new way to experience search. Instead of one big list, you get nice visual Views tailored for the content you are looking for.

With traditional text-based search engines, no matter what or how you search, your results are basically the same. Searching for Bono looks the same as searching for chicken recipes or sports cars.

How is Viewzi Different?

It's about Views
Humans think in pictures. If a picture is worth a thousand words then Viewzi's rich, visual Views are worth a million searches. But don't think of us as yet another visual search engine. It's more than just pictures, it's about visually presenting your results in the context of what you are searching for.

It's Refined
Some views are more utilitarian and pull from broad sources like Google or Yahoo!, while others can be tailored for a specific topic like world news, celebrity gossip, or gadgets. This means your results are right for your search. No more sifting through millions of results.

It's Smart
Our View Picker helps connect you with just the right Views. We do the work of finding the best places and sources and brings those together for you. One search bar for hundreds of sources. It's like having thousands of search engines in one search bar.

It's Fun
It's just more fun to use Viewzi. So fun that we've been called, 'The iPhone of search." Each time you search for something you can try a different View. Our views are hand crafted by some of the best designers and experts across the globe, each one of them passionate about making search exciting and fun for you.

Viewzi will not be available until June 9th, but early adopters can get a chance to test drive it here; Viewzi test drive

Article on CBS 11 TV

So,Is it unique to other search engines ?

The answer is a big YES!

How is it differs?

                 With traditional text-based search engines, no matter what or how you search, your results are basically the same. Searching for Bono looks the same as searching for chicken recipes or sports cars:

                   Most important one i can say is its navigation style .It has a "view mix mode" which helps you to navigate through various screen like webscreenshot view,video 3xview,basic photoview,sources view ,weather view,amozon book view etc.You would be able to magnify these views by just navigating through the options.Its slick and looks wounderful to navigate.

                     First, a web screenshot view with an actual screenshot of the pages in the search results from various sources. A basic photo view displaying results from popular image sharing sites Also a videox3 view which displays the reslts from different sources like youtube.blinxtv ,veoh.A simple text view from various souces like Google,Yahoo and MSN.Viewzi also includes other views like mp3 search view,celebrity photo view,Tech crunch view,reuters news view and a shopping view.

Over all its a good search engine looks slick and has different views which makes it differ from other search engines.However  watchout for the Mp3 view if your trying to listen to the songs related to your search then your wrong you may end up listening to some chinese or an arabic songs!

Currently not available for everyone if you want to have a look at this you need to register for a preview.