New Search Visualizations Paradigms
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Saturday, May 03, 2008
I really like to search the web. I search because I'm curious. I search because I need specific information. When I need to find something specific I still go to Google. When I'm curious, and searching for entertainment sake I go to visual, faceted, and relational search engines. There are many ways to search the web these days that are not just liner. Today searches can now be based on context, color, relationship, and even child safe content.
The following is a list of some of the best examples of visual search engines. My comments are now moderated, however, if you have search that you think should be included in this list please leave a comment. Also, if you have a spot on criticisms or relevant information about any app that was posted I also value your comment. Thanks to the developers of these searches for a new way to see what's out there on the inter-web.
Etsy's Color Product Search Visualization
While I've seen several color based searches they are usually for images. Etsy has created a color based search for products which gives you results based on colors you select in their easy to navigate color grid. To use the search just mouse over the color grid and click on the color. Then click the item to get a closer look and some more details. If you are interested in this item and want to find out more just click the item title. From there you can purchase the selected item.
Faceted Search by Moritz Stefaner
Project Search v1 by Moritz Stefaner is a a flash demo of a faceted search application for architectural projects. I find this form of search very useful for drilling down into a subject. The project has great interaction design.
Grokker - Relational Search Visualization
Relational search engines help you find more of the information you are looking for faster than with a traditional liner meta search. Grokker does a good job at relational search by federating content from Yahoo and Wikipedia. The results page has two main views which are a list view and a map view. The list view is interesting because it shows you a collapsable / expandable outline view of the categories, and a detail view. It also give you some tools to narrow your search such as a date slider, view by either Yahoo, Wikipedia or both, by keyword within the outline, and finally, by domain. The map view gives you the same tools with an expanded visualization map of the results and relationships. Very fun, easy to use, and great for discovering related results.
Kart00 - Visual Search
Kartoo is a meta search engine which presents its results on a map. To try it enter your request and click on the "OK" button. As soon as you launch a search, Kartoo analyses your request, questions the most relevant engines, selects the best sites and places them on a map. In this map, the found sites are represented by more or less important size pages, depending on their relevance. When you move the pointer over these pages, the concerned keywords are illuminated and a brief description of the site appears on the left side of the screen. A series of keywords appears. You can refine your search by clicking subjects. To go to the next map, click on the "map nb x" button.
oSkope - Visual Search
If you frequent websites like Amazon, YouTube, flickr and eBay you probably love the mass of content that you can see at sites like these. As a designer I tire of "sameness" in ways to browse websites. With the exception of flickr the only way to browse the content on these sites is the all to common linear list view. oSkope gives you another. As they say on their website, "oSkope is a search assistant with a highly intuitive visual interface. oSkope lets you browse quickly through a large number of images a preview information with minimal paging. Selected items can be saved by registered users." In many of my test searches I found the information or product I was looking for much more quickly than on the websites themselves. While I can save individual products in a folder I also wish I could save searches. The product is still in beta, however, it is a very fun, intuitive and functional way to search the selected websites. Thanks to the developers and designers.
Quintura Search Visualization
Quintura is a tag cloud based visual search engine. After your initial search you're presented with a two pane screen. On the left is grouping of tags that are related to your search term. On the right are standard liner search results. From an interaction standpoint I think the combination works well. In one screen I get readable results and suggested related search terms. You can also embed your search term cloud on your own website.
Quintura Kids - Child Friendly Search Visualization
If you have children you know that many search engines retrieve sites you may not want them to see. If you're a kid you know how boring most search engines can be. "Quintura, Inc. is the next-generation web search company that was launched with a mission to make Web search easier and faster by adding context or meaning to keywords and visualizing search. The patent-pending technology of Quintura is based on over a decade of the founders' innovative research and development in the area of neural network and artificial intelligence". Quintura also has a wonderful search for standard use, and a women's version is planned soon. So far I love both versions that are public.
Searchme - Visual Search Engine
Searchme is new search visualization which lets you see the webpage before you surf there. The idea is pretty neat. As you start to enter a search term you are shown a list of categories that are associated with that term. You can either choose a category, or search all categories. The results are shown in "coverflow" paradigm. You can still sort by category, or just click though the "coverflow" of all of the pages. I love the idea and the execution, however, from a user interface perspective there are a few interactions that would help the UI a great deal. For example, a full screen mode would make seeing the webpages much more useful. Even with a 30 inch Apple HD monitor the pages are a little hard to read. If searchme added a high-rez full screen mode or a way to magnify the page images it would give me a way to see the page relevance to my search. One step beyond that would be to show the highlighted search term(s) on each page as it flew by. Props out to the developers/designers! In my opinion it just needs a little UX love and then we could have a real winner.
Snap - Search Visualization
Recently new forms of search visualization have been on the rise. Snap is a great example of a new way to view search results. The applications allows you to view an image of the page your about to visit before you go there. The site is broken into two panes one with the search results and the other with a screenshot of the page. In the screenshot pane you can choose three different sizes of screenshots. You can view the site with either a new window or in the larger left pane. As a visual person I found it to be a fun way to browse search results.
TouchGraph Google Browser
The TouchGraph Google Browser reveals the network of connectivity between websites, as reported by Google's database of related sites. Use this free Java application to explore the connections between realted website.
Comments on this post
Billy Girlardo on 05/03 at 03:29 AM
http://www.searchcrystal.com/home.html
franz on 05/03 at 11:53 AM
nice list, great article, here is my homebrown contribution to the visual search topichttp://www.creativspace.at/?q=site:maxkiesler.com&safe=on
massrepeat on 05/03 at 06:26 PM
fantastic post. i read it with great interest. thanks for the effort.
Paul Rouke on 05/06 at 10:11 AM
Great post Max. I particularly like the Etsy site, with the ability to browse the entire user generated catalogue of products via colour matching.
For the target audience this certainly feels like a very user centered navigational method, adding a new dimension to facet based navigation which certainly provides increased engagement.
Denis Brulé on 05/07 at 10:21 AM
Hello Max,
Let me introduce you to flokoon. Flokoon lets you explore your favorite websites in a 2-dimensional interface. If you are keen on discovering new music, new videos, and new photos, you will fancy flokoon. So far its state-of-the-art interface lets you browse the content of Last.fm, Youtube and Fotolia.
We would be very pleased to get your input on flokoon. Do not hesitate to test it and tell us what you think : for sure your feedback will help us improving ! And if you think flokoon is worth it feel free to include it in your list. Hopefully your comments about us will be as great as those we had in the french Techcrunch !
Thanks a lot for the great post and more generally for your marvelous blog !
Cheers,
Denis, for the flokoon team
http://www.flokoon.com/app/beta#lastfm
http://blog.flokoon.com (in french, sorry !)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8391114775
http://www.facebook.com/pages/flokoon/7152827875
fedmich on 05/26 at 09:46 PM
Wow, these are so cool. Now Im inspired. Im gonna join the experiments as well, I’m in the process of making some special search engines as well. Ill post it later here.
Keep up the good work guys 
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