Feel free to test them all out, or pick the one that seems like it might be best for your current searching needs.
1. Google Squared. Google Squared is in the "Google Labs" - meaning it's been developed, but hasn't been fully adopted yet (sometimes this means bugs are still being worked out, sometimes it means Google is still determining whether there is an audience for the tool). What is it? Accoding to Google: "Google Squared takes a category and creates a starter 'square' of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web." Essentially you get a table, presenting common information from the sites returned into columns. You can add columns (topics suggested in a drop down based on the content). Here's my search for "Dogs". You'll see I got a column for item, description, image, country of origin, weight and height. If you hold your cursor over the description, you'll see the name of the website providing the information. Google Squared works great when you're searching for an "object" based topic (dogs, cheese, antibiotics, classic cars, etc.) because you'll get a visual overview of the results. One more interesting thing about Google Squared: like most things Google, you can save and share your results.
2. Search Cube. What is it? (according to searchcube.com) search-cube is a visual search engine that presents web search results in a unique, three-dimensional cube interface. It shows previews of up to ninety-six websites, videos and images. You've just got to try it! Manipulate your cube by dragging with your mouse to rotate, or by using the arrow keys on your keyboard to flip the cube. Click one of the squares to open the represented website (if you just hold your mouse over a square, you'll get a description, URL and other information off to the right).
3. Viewzi. This search engine builds "views" of your search results. The default view is the power grid, but based on your topic, one of the other views along the top may offer a more detailed result. The other views include:
- website screen shots (just flip through one by one, sort of like photos on an iphone)
- site information (giving you details like how much traffic the site gets daily, when it was last updated, if it's been tagged elsewhere
- video view, news view and photo view are similar to Google's image, news and video search
The search cube was fascinating! I searched the word service-learning. It was interesting to see what sites, videos, and images appeared. The most surprising result was the colleges and universities who appeared on the cube. Montgomery College is not "known" for civic engagement; however, they had a great clip for their About Campus TV station about a professor and a student project. Should I teach the MAT topics course again on Service-Learning, I may start here to find new clips for K-12 service-learning. Great resource! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI REALLY liked search cube and Viewzi! Search cube especially lets your eyes see more options quicker than what the typical search results provide. I love these! Now I have to go back to my summer class and relearn what to do with all these new book marks I just added!
ReplyDeleteWow...these all are really interesting
ReplyDeleteThe search cube is interesting when you type in "Coe College." :) Viewzi is a neat site, too!
ReplyDeletelove the search cube and google squared. How do you find out about all these sites?
ReplyDeleteThe search cube was a much more interesting way to get information! Definitely a more fun alternative to your traditional search.
ReplyDeleteFollowing Kristy's lead, I searched "Coe College" on all three. Very interesting results. I liked the search cube visually. My google habit is going to be hard to break, though.
ReplyDeleteGreat fun - I could waste a lot of time playing with these. I am not sure whether they really provide a more efficient way to search or just one that is a bit more fun.
ReplyDeleteI liked Viewzi. I was able to visually weed out some sites that appeared valid but were not. It also had other features that were fun, like the photo tag cloud and the recipes.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like search cube. I found the cube more distracting than helpful, and it took me awhile to figure out how to turn it.
Google squared is only useful if you have the right search, 'dog' produced a coherent break down, but my search results for 'poinsettia' didn't.
Well, I had a lot of fun with search cube! It is definitely a time sink though. Both give an alternative to a simple list search.
ReplyDeleteAs I'm looking to develop a course on Motivation and Emotion, I conducted a search on each of the three sites. Google-Squared failed to yield anything for the compound form, though did so for the individual terms. Search-Cube and Viewzi did provide some results, which unfortunately weren't very useful for my purposes, though I don't blame the sties for that. In general, I like the presentation of the results (esp. Google-Squared and Viewzi) over a typical Google search and thus can see myself using them again.
ReplyDeleteThese are great. I get frustrated sometimes using Google. You've given me 3 new search options -- Thanks, Lisa.
ReplyDeleteJohn Travolta became even more intriguing using these search options. Now I have even better ways to search my favorite topics, thanks to 12 Days....!
ReplyDelete