Cool search engine - extremely cool
OK, maybe I’m the least knowledgable online marketer. Or maybe I don’t read the press releases as they flow passed. Could even be (as my wife claims) that I don’t listen. (Not buying that one.)
Seems to me one of two things is happening:
1 - cool stuff is flooding online faster than any of us can assimilate it or even acknowledge it
2 - I simply need to read more places, or update my RSS feeds
It floored me today when a co-worker mentioned www.searchme.com and I hadn’t seen it before. Talk about cool - WOW!
Granted, being a rich experince you need all the bits and pieces installed, and a high speed connection is pretty much a given, but still - worth it IMO.
First thing you’ll notice is the black background. Perhaps a jab at G around the ongoing arguement of being green, as apparently white backgrounds require more resources, thus affecting the electricity used, etc., etc., etc. I’m sure the dolphins are rejoicing somewhere…
Not as clean an interface as the traditional engine’s layouts, yet if you’re looking for a new way to interact with search results, this should fit the bill nicely. You place your query in the box at the top as usual. Below the query box are a few other “current item” pre-packaged search otpions. Main page is clean enough, but when you get to a results page, be ready for a whole new experience. 
No list fo results appears, but a deep scoll of images is surfaced - snapshots of the sites in ranked order for your search. They start on the right hand side of the screen, pop to the middle for your viewing pleasure, then scoot left and make their way out of view as you look deeper.
Great way to surface deeper sites as your interaction time with the product is going to increase because it’s fun to scroll through the huge thumbnails for each site/result.
All that said, I found a few instances where the same site surfaced 4 - 6 times in the first 50 results. I also saw some blank spaces - almost like the thumbnail was missing. Not sure where they get their index of results from, but it doesn’t match the Big G as you scroll deeper, as closely as you might otherwise like…if you feel G is the grand artibor of relevancy.
Overall, very nice use of a rich environment to offer an alternative to the same-old-same-old.
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