If You Like Searching and Hate Reading...

I came across a new search engine yesterday called SearchMe that takes a more visual approach to search. Personally I think it's very cool to see the results and be able to flip through them iPod-style.

Using SearchMe is pretty easy, drop your query in the search box and then if applicable you can choose the appropriate category.

Above I used my last name and you can see I had the choice of dentists, painters, actors, religiousy folks, and advertising. Because my modus operandi here happens to be strategic web based narcissism I clicked on Advertising & Marketing.



This brought me to a screen full of screen shot results for Dumouchel as it relates to Advertising and Marketing. You can see my LinkedIn Profile, my Yahoo Search Ambassador page, and the Systems & Marketing Solutions web site amongst other results. You can flip between results using the arrows at the bottom of the results page.

SearchMe has some basic setting for you to play with as well. You can block adult results, choose night or day color schemes, and choose to either open your selections in the same window or a new one.

The thing I want to find out is if they are pulling their own results or if they are piggybacking off of another engine. The results I pulled for various queries that I follow didn't match what I typically see in the big 3. Plus it doesn't have robdumouchel.com indexed at all just yet.

I think we're going to see a lot more visual search in the future, and I'm kind of excited to see it develop. I know some big corporations like AT&T are exploring the space (they're calling it POGO), but I'm rooting for a break out little guy.

Even Google has been adding visual elements to their SERPs. First it was maps and videos, and now today I found that the result for my LinkedIn profile has my profile picture beside it. I hear they're going to do this with Facebook too.

I'm really interested to see how this progresses and if it pulls any mainstream attention. I think as a society Americans would prefer to not read stuff if at all possible, so Visual Search has a lot of potential.