Jeff from Iambetterthanu.com posted a real interesting link to his pownce page today. It’s a link to a new search engine that gives previews of the sites in its search results (I know, not that unique, ask.com and snap.com among many others feature previews). The fact it provides previews of sites isn’t all that unique, it’s how they present the results.
Yup, search results are posted in a scrollable wheel of site previews! It’s pretty cool though their search engine needs some fine-tuning.
Yup, the zebra is cute. It’s also animated, and yes you can lose a few minutes of your life staring at it do its’ zebra thing.
Search results are returned to you in a scrollable wheel of site previews! For U.S. Presidential Candidates, RedZee returned 87 hits with all but seven site previews hidden away off screen. It’s pretty cool and actually a great way to scan through search results, but the search engine itself could use a good chunk of fine-tuning. Also, there’s a considerable load-time (it varied but up to 15-20 seconds) waiting for the wheel of site previews to load. Still, the wheel is such a unique way of presenting search results it’s at least worth a quick look.
Thanks for your comment on my Qtrax review.
I just gave RedZee a try. I’ve got to say that I love the scrolling view. People are really taking to that form of content organization.
Also, the mascot is a really nice touch. It’s something so small, but I’m digging the the animated, goofy giraffe.
I guess the only downside I can see to the screen views is the load time associated with it. It took me around 5-10 seconds to do a search that I knew would generate a lot of results. I guess I’ve been so accustomed to the fast paced nature of searching that it was weird to regress.
Thanks for stopping by here Ryan.
The scrolling ability is a great function and a good way to look through data, but I wonder if it really is better than just a plain old list. For one, as you say, the load times are quite noticeable and contrast sharply to the search engines we use everyday. Another drawback is I can’t copy and paste the search results and send them to someone or save them; those search results are locked into that scroll wheel.
The giraffe is real cool.
Hi – The one problem with using the site is that the top 3 spots are sponsored links. So the top 3 spots are not necessarily the most relevant. I bought 3 keywords for http://www.calmnatural.com and one just ran out. One keyword I still have is “Natural Calm”, try it, my site will be number one on that search 33% of the time. Just don’t click on it there, unless you are genuinely interested as it will cost me $0.10.