uvLayer: Visual Search For Visual Media

Supporting 16 languages, visual search engine uvLayer takes the search for video and makes it as easy as collecting cards. Truly, this this Flash based interface makes searching through YouTube and Truveo that easy. Simply pluck labeled and movable thumbnails from your search and drop them into the groups you want. Intuitive, logical, and fun. You could not ask for much more from a visual search.

Let’s walk it through. uvLayer lets you search with or without the sign in, but if you want to access the sharing aspects of uvLayer, you’ll want to sign in. For the sake of exploration, we’ve signed in. We locate the search box on the upper right, and do a search for Listio. Since we’ve got a video on YouTube, the result comes back quickly in a box titled “Listio” (our search). To save it we drag it out of the box and onto the “canvas,” what uvLayer calls the background.

Now let’s say we want to create a group of videos with the subject of web 2.0. We do a search for “web 2.0,” and new results are generated in a box, stacked on top of our last search. Each search will make a new box, stacked on top of the other for easy comparison. Here we see the advantage of the visual interface; unlike searching the video hosting sites, where results are limited to ten, or require scrolling through many pages, uvLayer lays out thirty per box, for as many as you need, and keeps them active. This means that you can easily compare and assemble media based on the results of several searches, a very different way of holding onto results than bookmarking and creating favorites.

Next we want to create a group of videos, called a “stack,” to bring all of our web 2.0 into one place. For this simply drag the video thumbnail to a place on the canvas, and stack them up. Once there are more than two connected you will have the option of labeling it. Create as many stacks as you like, and if you are signed in, uvLayer will keep them for you as long as you like. Put the wrong video in the wrong stack? At the top right of every stack there’s a button to “break apart” the set, letting you reorganize as you like.

On both the stack you’ve created and the search box you’ll notice a triangle in the upper right of the box. From the triangle, new menu options appear; “play the group,” “copy the url,” and “copy the embed code.” The latter two are useful for sharing, but uvLayer also works with AIM and Google’s Talk. Once you’ve logged into AIM or Talk, icons for your friends will automatically load, letting you drop videos (or stacks of videos) to your friends. At the time of this review the sharing process had some drawbacks. Friends had to be signed into both uvLayer and their chat client, and the videos appeared as a link to UVLayer meaning that friends would have to follow the steps to share.

In the final analysis, UVLayer is a great way to search for videos across two of the largest video hosting sites (YouTube and Truveo). An easy to use interface with simplicity and style, there’s no arguing uvLayer can deliver fast, accurate results in a way that any video lover will appreciate. With the added ability to create playlists with the stacks, view several searches at once, and organize the videos by your interest, uvLayer offers something that only a visual search could offer; a visual interface to organize visual media. To experience the thrills of uvLayer, or to find other visual search engines, use the Listio search visual+search-engine.

Previously in this series: oSkope: Six Service Visual Search
Next in this series: Viewzi: Visual Searching With Specialized Views

Application: uvLayer
Listio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/uvLayer/
Website: http://www.uvlayer.com

Video sharing is the name of the game and uvLayer excels at it. uvLayer is a new Adobe AIR application that works as a media dashboard so that you can organize all your video assets and share them with friends and family. uvLayer comes with its own video player and a set of tools for sharing and se... Learn more

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Tags: find, search, search engine, visual, watch
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