Review of 5 visual search engines:
What is a Visual Search Engine?
Simply – it’s a search engine that has different display format from Google, Yahoo, MSN and other, traditional, 10 blue links. Some visual search engines feature new layouts, some show results as real web screen captures.
Visual search engines:
- Index the web on their own
- Use results from other search engines (meta-search)
Why the need for visual search engines?
I think users are happy with Google, Yahoo and MSN. There’s no real need for visual search engines on the market, but rather a want of making it big by innovators who come up with this stuff.
What are the best visual search engines?
Visual search engines have few users, so it’s hard to say. It’s more of “I like this one, what do you think dude?â€.
SearchMe Review
SearchMe is hip. It’s got page long, interactive images of the sites which you can move around. It shows 1 result at a time.
You can browse vertical search options like: Search Engines, Advertising & Marketing, Stocks, Editing, Software, News, Videos, TV, Football and others. There is no visual difference between verticals. In terms of results, SearchMe brings relevant pages once you select a specific section. “News” gives news results. “Real Estate” gives pages with specific keywords on real estate sites(think SEO+real estate).
It’s very hard to read web pages, sometimes impossible. To check how relevant the page is, users have to visit it. At the rate of 1 result per keyword this process is tedious. It’s easier to scan 10 blue links than it is to visit each page and determine if it relates to the search.
The interface is flash based. You can also search Images, and Video.
Also check video review of SearchMe.
ViewZi Search
Just as SearchMe, its almost impossible to learn how relevant a page is to the query, because text is unreadable on the screen capture.
Clicking the result brings you to a web page, with ViewZi on top as a frame.
Upon search you are given 15 View types to select.
Web Screen Shot View, Video View, Simple Text View, Site Information View, 3D Photo Cloud, Basic Photo View, 4 Source View and more. All are cool as hell, but how does it help me find what I need? Little. In fact, it’s work intensive.
It’s easier to browse results with ViewZi than SearchMe, but again, it’s impossible to know if a web page is relevant.
PicLens.
First disadvantage: you need to install a plug in. It’s like a chinese wall for users.
Next disadvantage – how do you use it? No explanation.
When you manage to find the button Piclens goes nuts. It Takes you to a full screen mode where you can browse Google Image Search, Yahoo Image Search, Facebook, Flikr and other sites.
3D interface is gorgeous, but does one really need it? Search is for speed and relevance.
This is a cool feature for video clips, so keep it mind if you want to do clip production.
Red Zee Overview
That red zebra is very entertaining. Kids will love it. I suspect the search engine is aimed at kids.
Zebra jumps, moves and smiles at you. Below is the search box. It takes a bit to gather results, but when RedZee is done, this is what you see:
Pictures can be dragged from left to right and vise versa. To get to a website you need to doubleclick on a result – took a bit to figure out. Just as Piclens, ViewZi and SearchMe – it’s hard to see text, a big killer.
Relevancy is very questionable. Search for SEO, gave SEO book(to expect), seo.com and lendingtree.com! I’m sure Lending Tree does a lot of SEO, but it’s in no way related to the industry.
In the middle you can see classic text ads, which swap as you swap webpages.
On the good side, hmmm… it’s a time waster.
Kids might love it.
Check their TV commercial(file download).
Bryns Brain
Bryns wins – it actually shows readable web pages.
But it also looses – how do you visit a result? Try it, see if you can figure out.
Did you figure it out? If you didn’t bother, you have to click on the zoomed result, flip the card, and click on “visit website”. Average user will never figure it out and run back to loving Googles and Yahoos.
Current Visual Search Engines Will Die Out or Innovate.
Cruel? There’s no other fate. Usability is zero and web-users can be ruthless creatures if their time is not appreciated. Load times lag on all visual search engines and there isn’t any value in visual search other than coolness factor. In their current state Visual Search has no chances. More innovation and usability might save it.
Coolness alone doesn’t break in search. It’s all about speed and value, testimony to this is Google’s:
….249,000,000 for seo. (0.20 seconds)
