September 15, 2009

Google Releases Visual-Based News Platform

Whenever a search engine briefs me with big news, I've come to wonder - "What will Google come up with to try and steal their thunder?"

Today was no exception. After Bing announced its Visual Search and Ask announced Search for the Cure, sure enough the web was buzzing with news of Google Fast Flip.

Of course, this unveiling had more to do with taking on Bing and Visual Search than Ask. Fast Flip is a Google Labs project that is like Searchme or Viewzi where you browse pages before you click and read. However, it's focused on news, whereas Searchme and Viewzi are for all niches. The idea is that you "flip" through newspapers and magazines, on the internet.

It doesn't look like it took much to code up Fast Flip, which leads to even more suspicion that it was a knee-jerk reaction to Bing's news. But that hasn't stopped the usual ogling from media and bloggers who react with infatuation at anything Google releases.

The New York Times seems to think that this is Google attempting to appease newspaper publishers, which is, at least, a plausible explanation. But trying to take people to an old way of flipping through print materials instead of progressing on how people are actually consuming the news on the internet is not going to work.

Check out Fast Flip for yourself and then come back and let us know what you think.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 17, 2009

Searchme Launches Search Advertising Program Out of Beta

In February, visual search engine Searchme began testing a search advertising program in a closed beta. Now, the ad program is officially launching to all interested advertisers.

Searchme's results offer up images of website pages, which provides search marketers with an opportunity to include more design concepts into their campaigns.

"We've basically fused together the best elements of brand and keyword advertising. At the same time, we're helping consumers know exactly what they're getting before they click on an ad," said John Galatea, Searchme vice president of sales and marketing.

As a result, search marketers may find their cost-per-click maximized.

"The Searchme Ad Platform delivers more valuable clicks leading to increased conversions while reducing consumer frustration at clicking through to ads that don't match their needs," continued Galatea. "The future of search advertising is visual."

Galatea is basing his statements on the success of the beta program. Mindshare, part of the Group M unit of WPP, is including Searchme ads in their client strategy.

"We're doing a lot of testing on the Searchme Ad Platform for a number of different brands. We see some very cutting-edge, unique opportunities and we'll continue to introduce this to our clients," said Chris Westmeyer, Senior Search Strategist at Mindshare.

Mindshare isn't alone. Media Contacts, the global interactive media network of Havas Digital, is also experiencing success with Searchme ads.

"What is appealing for Media Contacts' clients is the idea of providing a pre-click site-preview in the SERP to qualify the audience and ultimately improve efficiency," said Rob Griffin, Media Contact's Senior Vice President, U.S. Director of Search, Data & Analytics. "The innovative format and integration of the ads with the organic content itself allows our clients to be part of the page flow which lends to a cleaner, less cluttered environment enabling better brand messaging at the same time."

Will you be checking out Searchme ads? Let us know your interest in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 9, 2009

New Version of Safari Browser Incorporates Coverflow to Search Web History

Among the many announcements Apple made at the keynote of its World Wide Developer Conference yesterday was a new version of its Safari web browser. The update includes the ability to search your browsing history via Coverflow.

Coverflow, if you're not familiar, is something Apple's been using for years on iTunes and iPod/iPhone. It displays images and you scroll (or swipe if you have a touch screen) left to right to browse. With music, it displays album covers and you select the one you want.

We've seen visual search engines launch to implement something similar into search. Searchme and Viewzi are two great examples.

Of course, this update in the Safari browser is different in that it only searches your web history. We haven't seen a lot from Apple in the way of search. But with Google going after enterprise and software (though mostly through the cloud) and Microsoft going after search, Apple may feel the need one day to do so.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 13, 2009

Searchme Releases Mobile App for Android

Visual search engine Searchme has released a mobile application for Android. The Android is a mobile operating system by Google that is currently found on the G1 at T-Mobile.

"Searchme's visual search app is perfectly suited for Android users who are looking for ways to push the boundaries of what their smartphone can do," said Randy Adams, Searchme Founder and CEO. "This solves a real issue for mobile users - a faster, better way to do mobile search. The feedback we're getting from the mobile community is that they like being able to quickly preview web pages before deciding to take the time to load them in the browser."

Searchme released an app for the iPhone last November. The visual search engine launched last year and is experiencing 4 million unique visitors monthly. Searchme has seen growth of 180% since January 2009.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 27, 2009

Searchme Adds Twitter Button to Aid Tweets of Search Results

Visual search engine Searchme has added a Twitter button that helps users Tweet the search results they've come across. Once you've conducted your search, simply click the button. You'll be taken to the Twitter homepage where a Tweet is already prepared for you. Tweak as needed or go ahead and update. Check it out...

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 26, 2008

Searchme Adds Media Search and Visual Bookmarking

Visual search engine Searchme has announced the addition of two new features. The first is Media Search, which allows users to search for videos and images from YouTube and Flickr. The second is "Stacks," a visual bookmarking and sharing features that enables users to share what they find on blogs, social media profiles, email and web sites.

"These visual search applications enhance our core search engine by allowing people to use Searchme in fresh, innovative ways across various media and all over the Web," said Randy Adams, Searchme CEO. "It's another step in our long-term plan to add features and functionality, improve our beta engine's relevance and coverage, and create a world-class search experience."

"Until now, most web users have had to check multiple bookmarks every day, click on dozens of links pasted into an email, and hunt multiple times for sites they saw once but didn't have time to check out," said Adams. "With Stacks, they can now bypass these methods, saving time and creating an organized web experience."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 9, 2006

Google, Microsoft And The '3-D Web'

When Microsoft launched its Live Local/Virtual Earth 3-D platform earlier this week, the memorable quote from Virtual Earth GM Stephen Lawler was, "It's the beginning of the 3-D Web." As a factual matter that statement may not be entirely accurate, but symbolically it is.

Numerous companies, such as Planet 9 Studios, have been working on 3-D modeling for a long time. Then, of course, there's Second Life and MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach. Now comes 3B, which allows users to create their own personalized 3-D "villages." There's also the world of avatars, which is growing.

In the larger context of online trends, we're seeing the rise of more imagery and visual information initially exemplified by Flickr and more recently by online video and YouTube. Sharing and community are integral to these experiences. (Also, check out the provocative new demo of Microsoft's Photosynth. Here's a previous post on it.)

Microsoft acquired Vexcel for, among other things, the company's capacity to do automated 3-D rendering. Vexcel CEO John Curlander said that the company is rendering eight cities a month, moving quickly to 16. Accordingly, the Virtual Earth 3-D platform will have well over 100 cities by the end of Q2 next year. By contrast, Google is letting the community build 3-D models, which is proceeding steadily according to Google Earth GM John Hanke. Also, Google has a way to rate/rank the best and most detailed models, among duplicates, for maximum quality ("model complexity.")

You can bet that Google will be accelerating the development of these 3-D models for Earth.

All the coverage in the past week has been around the "red meat" competitive question of whether Microsoft has now surpassed Google Earth with Virtual Earth 3-D. The answer is both yes and no. Yes, in the sense that Microsoft has made 3-D cities broadly accessible by making them available in the browser (though there's still a plug-in to download). No, in that the experience of using Live Local 3-D in the browser is currently much slower than using comparable functionality on Google Earth 4.

Both products have APIs/developer tools that allow third parties to build on top of these "platforms." But let's forget about the "who will win?" issue. Let's look at the bigger picture, which is more interesting anyway.

The question of what's next in search is often posed and left unanswered, because it's very hard to image what might replace the ubiquitous text box. But, in my opinion, a partial answer is starting to emerge. It involves variables of place (local/geo-coding), rich media (images, video, 3-D) and community. I wrote some time ago on this blog about Google Earth as a "geobrowser" and alternative Web-search paradigm.

Almost anything that you can do in text/2-D can be done in a more fun and engaging way in 3-D and/or with video. With limited exceptions pictures are, in fact, worth more than a thousand words.

The Internet is rapidly becoming more "textured" and rich media and community are at the center of that trend. In one corner, social search is being seen by some as a successor to machine algorithms (or at least the future includes some hybrid). In another, "social networking" sites -- which might be now better labeled "social destinations" -- continue to gain more and more consumer traction. In addition, online video is growing fast both as consumer experience and as an online advertising vehicle.

There is much more to discuss in terms of how geo-location, rich media and community play out in search (or "discovery"), as well as the advertising opportunities that may lie on the other side for both large and small businesses. My point is only that the foundation is now being pretty clearly laid for new search and discovery tools and new user experiences that are much more complex and engaging than what exists today.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 4:07 PM | Permalink

September 25, 2006

Real Estate Search Engine Trulia Adds New Depth, Features

As the housing market cools, the real estate vertical is heating up. Today, real estate search engine Trulia launched several new features, a week after Zillow introduced new functionality and about three weeks after Yahoo! Real Estate announced a range of new tools and a site redesign.

Trulia has now expanded and is offering nationwide coverage through a mix of crawling and listing feeds. It's also providing a range of new information on real estate price trends, comparable homes and neighborhood guides (i.e., schools, commutes and crime data). Here's are example guides for Chicago, Illinois and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Perhaps the most fun new feature/tool on the site are heat maps, which show prices per square foot by area. Here's Chicago and San Diego, California. Zillow introduced something similar last week (Here's an example for Boston, Massachusetts.) The Trulia heat maps are interactive, however, and can be used as a way to locate homes for sale. Buyers can visually identify an area with a price per square foot they can afford and then go directly from the map to listings or an area guide to learn more.

Trulia is ad supported and is showing branded listings within relevant search results. Here's an example for a neighborhood in Miami, Florida. The ads at the top will be relevant to whatever criteria the user has indicated. There's also branded advertising on the adjacent maps. Trulia also has RSS feeds and alerts so users can stay abreast of properties within their criteria without having to visit the site every day.

Trulia is just a year old and has put together one of the most feature rich, useful and user-friendly of the real estate sites on the market. It is not as heavily trafficked as some but from a usability standpoint can go head to head with any site out there.

Real estate as a vertical is a perfect kind of a laboratory for local search. It offers an obvious and valuable implementation of maps, lots of monetization opportunities and ready would-be advertisers who are aggressive and generally ahead of the small business curve when it comes to creativity and online marketing.

Because there's so much money in the sector -- the National Association of Realtors estimates that approximately $12 billion dollars is spent annually in the U.S. on real estate marketing and advertising -- there's lots of competition and innovation.

Now with a slowing market it will get even more intense.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 12:24 PM | Permalink

May 9, 2005

New: Visualize Yahoo Results with Grokker

One information visualization tool that's received plenty of attention over the past few years is Groxis from Grokker.

Today, the NY Times reports that you can now use Groxis to visualize Yahoo Search results for free and WITHOUT having to download the Groxis client. If anyone is interested in checking out this new and easily accessible service, it's me. It's been a year or so since I used Groxis and at that point it was interesting but didn't seem to add much value to my searching. I think it's time to give it another look.

Until now the company has sold a $49 program for use with Windows-based and Macintosh computers. Beginning this week, the company will rely instead on revenue from advertisements placed by the Yahoo ad placement service.

The Groxis relationship with Yahoo is not exclusive, but Mr. Pittman [Groxis CEO] said Yahoo had been quicker than its competitor, Google, in creating a standard way to place relevant ads next to Grokker's circular search result maps.

To access Grokker's new web version, go here.

The full Grokker client software remains available for $49. Site-licensed versions for the enterprise and education communities remain available.

More about Groxis in: + Groxis moves up in the world (via SiliconValley.com + Groxis Launches Grokker E.D.U. for the Education Market (via Info Today) + Groxis Ships Version 2 of Its Visual Search Tool (via Info Today)

Of course, Groxis isn't the only info visualization tool out there. Here are some other resources to try:

+ NewsisFree offers News Map's for seven news categories.

+ Amazon, Google, and LiveJournal visualization tools from TouchGraph

+ SmartMoney's Map of the Market A very cool and useful way of looking at stock market data. Access to some maps is free while others are fee-based.

+ Google News Map (Note: Osinga works for Google's engineering team, and this is part of his blog)

+ Client software: Personal Brain

+ Hoover's via anacubis Visualize some of the business data that Hoover's makes available for free.

You can also use anacubis to visualize Amazon and Google.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:24 AM | Permalink

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