Search Results in 2009

It's 2009, and our search results still look like this:

Cuil tried to serve up search results more suited to the way Digital Natives process information: splashed all across the page, all media forms at once.  But one major problem I had with Cuil was that it was overwhelming, a huge smorgasbord of information shoved in front of us:

Then in June came Kosmix's redesign to horizontal search.  Similar to Cuil, Kosmix draws listings from sites across the web, not necessarily those with the best SEO.  But Kosmix's killer edge is how it categorizes the information into quick overviews, Wikipedia entries, audio, video, blogs, opinion/discussion, news...basically everything Google makes you travel to a separate page to find.  After trying a few searches, I was in love:

Another great Kosmix feature is how it integrates shopping and product reviews.  Showing the actual product for sale makes much more sense than relying on the text "Shop ____ at Amazon.com!" over on Googs:

I'm not as familiar with Yahoo Glue, but it seems to be a similar concept:

I think Glue will probably appeal to Yahoo's current user base, but for me, Yahoo is back with AOL in the land of dial-up.  I'm sticking with the cool new kid in town.

None of the new sites rival Google when searching more obscure terms, but for gaining a broader understanding of people and issues, Kosmix is definitely where I plan to head in 2009.  Of course, old habits die hard.  I'll keep you posted on how many of my searches actually take place on an alternative search site, rather than in the search bar of my Chrome browser.  Stay tuned!

Yaybia Mashup #1: Google, SEO, and Online Business

Libby talked about our love of Google Reader and how we share items for our friends and sometimes end up having mini conversations through the Notes feature.  So instead of neglecting to share our Reader thoughts with our Yaybia friends, I'll make a mashup post. 

First Jacey talked about the absent rivals chasing Google's tail. 

Then, Libby commented on this Fast Company article with "to the point of jacey's latest yaybia: should msn or yahoo really get behind a startup like mahalo as a challenge to google? second: the line about how SEO is built to google standards is true, but SCARY. anyone else?” 

I followed up with “we often have to remind ourselves that we need to promote sites in Live and Yahoo as opposed to just emphasizing google. but when google rankings slip, so does business. we've also found that you can spam the hell out of google without them even blinking. now that's scary.”

And then I also stumbled on this gem from USA Today this afternoon that complimented our thoughts.  Here's what I think about it, “even this article talks about the dominance/importance of google rankings and successful business. i mean, it does involve matt cutts, but still - USA Today chose googs and not other major search engines.” and everyone else is done for the day so their thoughts will be posted later. 

Yaybia + Reader = <3

David v. SuperGoliath

PIXSTA, a UK based image search technology company, has announced it's taking on Google by providing an extremely sophisticated image based search engine rivaling Google's. However, you can search via images rather than words and all tests of the program have thus far been very very successful. Initially, this AdImage program is used with participating online retailers so consumers can search via images rather than words. Read more here:

Pixsta launches image-based ad network

Good luck, PIXSTA, and God Speed...