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No one ever seems to give any mention to Viewzi, a Dallas based visual search engine that is pretty awesome from both a design and technical standpoint. http://

No one ever seems to give any mention to Viewzi, a Dallas based visual search engine that is pretty awesome from both a design and technical standpoint. http://viewzi.com http://viewzi.com Even though Viewzi is still in beta, the overall apathy toward them from the tech crowd seems to point to the conclusion that maybe people don't really want a design oriented search experience. Regardless, good luck to Viewzi and others who feel called to create a new approach to search, but the bottom-line remains... Branding is key, and Google is one of the most well-known and trusted brands in the world. In addition, even if you were to come up with some innovative new approach, Google or some random programmer with BOSS could easily implement similar features and render your hard work worthless. (see: Cuil) Search doesn't need fixed where it isn't broken. EDIT: I'm also tired of hearing people say that Google has no sense of design when it is one of the most well-designed sites on the web. There is an art to knowing what not to include, and Google does this better than anyone on the web.

prakash 18y ago
Wow, Viewzi is pretty cool, nice design. How did you hear of these guys?
- jfornear 18y ago
  I was looking for an internship in Dallas and came across them. I was also confused as to why I had not heard of them since I follow tech news religiously and go to school in Dallas at SMU. Apparently, their CEO sold his first company to Mark Cuban's Broadcast.com before it was sold to Yahoo. If they were based in Silicon Valley, I bet everyone would have already known about them, and the hype would be through the roof. I was really boggled by the way all the tech journalists overlooked Viewzi during that whole Cuil debacle.
- kleneway 18y ago
  These guys were on net@night a few weeks back: http://www.twit.tv/natn59 http://www.twit.tv/natn59
wensing 18y ago
I am not finding Viewzi to be very intuitive. This is not what I expect from a search results page: http://www.viewzi.com/search/hurricane%20tracking http://www.viewzi.com/search/hurricane%20tracking What am I supposed to do next?
- jfornear 18y ago
  You choose a 'view' depending on where you want the results pulled from and how you want it to be displayed. I agree, it isn't very intuitive, but only because it's different than Google, which is what we have been used to for so long.
  - wensing 18y ago
    It's not only because it's different than Google, it's because it's not explained, i.e. they make a poor assumption: namely, that the interface they're presenting contains enough information for me to make a good decision. I don't find that's the case. I find it hard to choose between "Web Screenshot View (Searches Yahoo)" or "4 Sources View (Searches Ask, Google, MSN, Yahoo)". I really have never thought about it. Just give me the results in your best guess format, and I'll take it from there if I'm unsatisfied. Also, the need to move really far through horizontal space to explore all the different views is ungood. Small multiples, if you want to call these that, should be placed in a grid, not a long single-file line.
- richcollins 18y ago
  Yeah it is not well designed. I think people confuse design with style. Just because something has style doesn't mean it is well designed.
  - jfornear 18y ago
    I'm assuming you can't beat Google with 'style' alone, so my use of 'design' pertains more toward the UX and process by which you finally get to the results. Viewzi is pretty innovative by allowing the user to choose where the results are to be pulled from and how they are to be displayed. I think Viewzi's UX is quite brilliant, but the look on the other hand is too heavy and flashy for my minimalistic taste. From a design standpoint, Google is so successful because they match their clean and simple look with their basic and straightforward UX.
thorax 18y ago
I really do like them. This sort of timeline search view was the first I've been excited about for years: http://www.viewzi.com/search/cronotron/ycombinator http://www.viewzi.com/search/cronotron/ycombinator

prakash 18y ago

Wow, Viewzi is pretty cool, nice design. How did you hear of these guys?

jfornear 18y ago
I was looking for an internship in Dallas and came across them. I was also confused as to why I had not heard of them since I follow tech news religiously and go to school in Dallas at SMU. Apparently, their CEO sold his first company to Mark Cuban's Broadcast.com before it was sold to Yahoo. If they were based in Silicon Valley, I bet everyone would have already known about them, and the hype would be through the roof. I was really boggled by the way all the tech journalists overlooked Viewzi during that whole Cuil debacle.
kleneway 18y ago
These guys were on net@night a few weeks back: http://www.twit.tv/natn59 http://www.twit.tv/natn59

wensing 18y ago

I am not finding Viewzi to be very intuitive. This is not what I expect from a search results page: http://www.viewzi.com/search/hurricane%20tracking http://www.viewzi.com/search/hurricane%20tracking What am I supposed to do next?

jfornear 18y ago
You choose a 'view' depending on where you want the results pulled from and how you want it to be displayed. I agree, it isn't very intuitive, but only because it's different than Google, which is what we have been used to for so long.
- wensing 18y ago
  It's not only because it's different than Google, it's because it's not explained, i.e. they make a poor assumption: namely, that the interface they're presenting contains enough information for me to make a good decision. I don't find that's the case. I find it hard to choose between "Web Screenshot View (Searches Yahoo)" or "4 Sources View (Searches Ask, Google, MSN, Yahoo)". I really have never thought about it. Just give me the results in your best guess format, and I'll take it from there if I'm unsatisfied. Also, the need to move really far through horizontal space to explore all the different views is ungood. Small multiples, if you want to call these that, should be placed in a grid, not a long single-file line.
richcollins 18y ago
Yeah it is not well designed. I think people confuse design with style. Just because something has style doesn't mean it is well designed.
- jfornear 18y ago
  I'm assuming you can't beat Google with 'style' alone, so my use of 'design' pertains more toward the UX and process by which you finally get to the results. Viewzi is pretty innovative by allowing the user to choose where the results are to be pulled from and how they are to be displayed. I think Viewzi's UX is quite brilliant, but the look on the other hand is too heavy and flashy for my minimalistic taste. From a design standpoint, Google is so successful because they match their clean and simple look with their basic and straightforward UX.

thorax 18y ago

I really do like them. This sort of timeline search view was the first I've been excited about for years: http://www.viewzi.com/search/cronotron/ycombinator http://www.viewzi.com/search/cronotron/ycombinator