Comparing Visual Search: SearchMe, oSkope, uvLayer, and Viewzi
Let’s face it, humans are very visual creatures. So why should we settle for text only search engines?
We won’t have to any longer. Visual search engines offer the results of your query visually, presenting a graphic oriented interface that, depending on the type of search, shows a large snapshot or a thumbnail-size image of websites or products. Most will offer text results as an aside or as a substitute, but the primary tool these new search engines offer is a visual interface. The benefit of visual search is that it allows for a whole separate layer of information, as well as making the search more entertaining. For one, we often judge our sources visually. Websites we trust generally are well presented, as are websites with entertaining content. Whether we realize it or not, our experience with the web has cultivated the skill to analyze content by form and text, and this is where the visual search engines really take off. Say we do a search for “Listio,” in any of the search engines we are shown the an image from the site, giving us not only an understanding of what kind of site it is, but also how Listio treats its information.
We judged the visual search engines from this week primarily on interface, since, as you can imagine, how a visual search is handled visually is critical. Next we broke the search into capabilities - not all visual searches cover the same terrain, and it was important that we acknowledge that some search engines have a unique area of coverage. We’ll go into greater detail after the chart where we compare four new visual searchers: SearchMe, uvLayer, Viewzi, and oSkope.
| Viewzi | SearchMe | uvLayer | oSkope | |
| Video search | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Web-wide search | yes | yes | no | no |
| Sharing options | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Drag and drop organizing | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Product search | no | no | no | yes |
| Save search results | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Classic search view | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Information on thumbnail | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Canvas/backdrop customization | no | yes | no | yes |
| Video plays inside application | no | yes | yes | yes |
As a visual search Viewzi was definitely the engine with the greatest numbers of options, something you see from the beginning of your search. To illustrate, let’s begin with our search, “banana creme.” Instead of a long page of text and short descriptions the first thing we see at Viewzi is a bar at eye level, comprised of screenshots. As we mouse over these screenshots, they enlarge to show searches within searches. Let me explain.
As we scroll across our search, we see that each screenshot presents the information in a different way. Viewzi calls these “views,” and if we click on one we see that view enlarges to show us the search formatted by that view. In this way, the “News View” gives us news stories about banana creme, the “Video X3 View” gives us videos (from Youtube, Veoh, and BlinkX) of banana creme, the “3d Photo Cloud View” shows us photos from Flickr, and the “Simple Text View” gives us results in a traditional search engine view, fed by Yahoo!. If we were looking for recipes, the “Recipe View” and the “Simple Text View” would be ideal, but if we were looking for a photo, the photo views (there are a couple) would be better suited. This is how Viewzi allows for categorizing our search, letting us get to the information we want faster. At the time of this review there were seventeen different views, each with its separate form of information - just like searches with a search.
Another visual search engine that has excellent categorizing is SearchMe, which starts the categorizing right away. From the front page there are options at top left to narrow your search; web, video, and images. These narrow the search, but even without them, a search through SearchMe is easy to hone. Let’s begin with a search for “Listio.” The results come back with a portfolio of screenshots, navigable by a scrollbar or clicking on the page itself. This is that great resource that allows us to sample the site before going to it, but what we also notice is that above the search there are icons to specialize the search. With our search for Listio, these icons read “software”, “blogs”, “search engines”, and the curious “beverages,” letting us focus our search on the exact topic we want.
Categorizing the search makes the SearchMe a valuable tool, but the most remarkable aspect of SearchMe is not related to the search at all. On the top right of the page is the “stacks” feature, a place where you can drag the thumbnails of your searches, and group them by stack. Suppose you were searching for a good way to find a domain name for a friend. Your search brings up Brandgopher, the domain engine, and BrandBucket, a domain and branding service. With an old search engine you would go the pages, link them, then email them. With SearchMe, simply drag BrandGopher into the stack section. A stack is created that you can then add BrandBucket too. Now with two tools for branding in a stack, you relabel the stack how you like, click the “Share” tab and email, post to a blog, or copy the url for your friend. Create as many stacks as you like, and they are saved for future research. Your friend receives the link to the stack, and when they open it, sees your stack, in exactly the order you put it in. If we extend stacking to videos we find that not only can we save a stack of our favorites, but that SearchMe will play them in sequence, allowing you to create playlists.
Playlists are a feature of the specialized visual search engine uvLayer, which searches YouTube and Truveo for media content. As with SearchMe, it allows you to pull the results you like into stacks, so that you can share and enjoy your favorites later. The best part of uvLayer is how it presents the information, generating 30 videos per result and placing them in a box. As you search more boxes are made, so that you can easily compare the results. Say you wanted to see how different management personalities are at Apple and Microsoft. Your search for Steve Ballmer brings up thirty videos in one box, Jobs brings up another box. It’s unlikely that you’ll want all of them, so you drag the video thumbnails from their boxes and organize them as you like. uvLayer makes the entire screen an open table for you to lay out the videos as you like, or to group them in stacks. Easy to put together, easy to break apart, and easy to share.
Integrated with AIM and Talk, uvLayer lets you send videos (or stacks of videos) through chat or email. Once you’re logged in, simply drag what you want to share into the email icon and the a window will open with your contacts. Click the person you want to share with, and that’s all there is. When your friends and family send you videos they appear in the inbox on the left, ready for easy viewing.
The visual search engine oSkope is a bit different, making users select their focus right from the start. To use oSkope, first select from one of six services (Amazon, eBay, Yahoo images, Flickr, Fotolia , or YouTube), before initiating the search. The results that return can be formatted in a way that suits your needs, from the classic list view (a text result with a thumbnail), to stacks, grids, and piles. As with uvLayer you can move the thumbnails around, open them, or put them into “My Folder,” a stack that you can send by email. A drawback to oSkope is that My Folder is just one folder, and unlike the other engines there is no ability to make multiple stacks, or rename them. The advantage to oSkope is that it can be used as a product search, and as we searched Amazon and eBay for “wine” and “bar” we found accurate results. oSkope also does a good job of providing details to items, so even if all you see are thumbnails, a rollover will give you a synopsis, and a click will give you additional information.
As with all developing applications, the visual search engines mentioned have their downsides. A routine search for SearchMe will provide relevant results, but we can not help but notice that there are duplicate pages in the results (much as we like to see Listio three times). Viewzi suffers from a lack of revelancy - our search for “banana creme” brought out recipes without bananas in them, and one view called the “Weather View.” uvLayer does an excellent search, but only covers YouTube and Truveo, which limits its function. oSkope too is limited in function, and users may find the prompt to select services and categories too distracting. That said, the four visual search engines covered this week show a great deal of promise, and are superb tools to bring more information to searching. To find other related applications, there’s the Listio search visual+search-engine.
Previously in this series: Viewzi: Visual Searching With Specialized Views
Application: SearchmeListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/Searchme/
Website: http://www.searchme.com
Application: oSkopeListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/oSkope/
Website: http://www.oskope.com
Application: uvLayerListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/uvLayer/
Website: http://www.uvlayer.com
Application: ViewziListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/Viewzi/
Website: http://www.viewzi.com
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Tags: compare, discover, find, search, search engines, visual
Posted in: Product Comparisons, Visual Search | Respond
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