Sneak Peak: First 250 Readers Get to Test Visual Search Engine Viewzi

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 by Andy Beal

Sneak Peak: First 250 Readers Get to Test Visual Search Engine Viewzi

If you’re tired of viewing your search results as blue links on a white page, then you might want to give Viewzi a test drive.

The "visual" search engine is still in closed beta, but the first 250 Marketing Pilgrim readers to sign-up with the code "pilgrim" will get access to the search engine before anyone else.

What will you find behind the beta curtain?

Actually a pretty cool and intuitive way of searching and viewing results. For example, a search for "Barack Obama" brings up a "cover flow" style interface with viewing options that include:

Video x3 View – dozens of relevant videos appear on your screen.
Celebrity Photo View – looks like a cyber scrapbook of Obama photos.
Amazon Book View – brings up Obama’s books complete with reviews and summaries
Wide Screenshot View – browse Yahoo’s search results by viewing screenshots not links
Reuters News View – simple, relevant news about Obama.
Many more views

Why would you use Viewzi? The Viewzi homepage shares its "vision" about "views."

It’s about Views
Humans think in pictures. If a picture is worth a thousand words then Viewzi’s rich, visual Views are worth a million searches. But don’t think of us as yet another visual search engine. It’s more than just pictures, it’s about visually presenting your results in the context of what you are searching for.

It’s Refined
Some views are more utilitarian and pull from broad sources like Google or Yahoo!, while others can be tailored for a specific topic like world news, celebrity gossip, or gadgets. This means your results are right for your search. No more sifting through millions of results.

Viewzi is definitely worth checking out. The way it displays results is refreshing and I found myself caught up in my searching–it’s almost as addictive as StumbleUpon. It probably won’t replace the quick, simple efficiency of Google, but it might just make your list of alternative search tools.

(Remember, only the first 250 get a sneak peak. If you sign-up, come back and tell me what you think of it.)

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11 comments on “Sneak Peak: First 250 Readers Get to Test Visual Search Engine Viewzi”

David Mulder Says:

April 22nd, 2008 at 1:41 pm

Searchme surely beats the screenshot view, it took me ages on viewzi to load a screenshot. Or actually I gave up after 2 minutes and half the screenshots loaded.

Actually all the views are too messy to use, and only the reordering in the 4 sources view is quite nice…
Saad Kamal Says:

April 22nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm

Ok..it looks like i got an invite Thanks Andy.

This is the adv of having andy in twitter – http://twitter.com/andybeal

Saad Kamal’s last blog post..How to Setup a Blog using Blogger
Andy Beal Says:

April 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm

@Saad – I like to provide value for money!
Dean Says:

April 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Am I missing something or is everyone trying to make search more complicated???

Viewzi meet RedZee meet SearchMe
Andy Beal Says:

April 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm

@Dean – I think the phrase you are looking for is “reinvent the wheel.”
Saad Kamal Says:

April 22nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm

I think it would be good if you watch their 101 video:

http://viewzi.tv/?dl=030408_viewzi101

Maybe its not ‘perfect yet’. But so far it looks pretty promising to me.

Saad Kamal’s last blog post..Yahoo BrowserPlus vs. Google Gears
Elections guy Says:

April 23rd, 2008 at 6:57 am

Why do they place erotic pictures on the frontpage?

Elections guy’s last blog post..Polls before Pennsylvania primary: Obama most popular
Keylogger Guy Says:

April 23rd, 2008 at 8:05 am

What are you talking about? I don’t see any “erotic” pictures.
To be honest this sounds interesting and I’ll check the service as soon as i have got access.
Steven Bradley Says:

April 23rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm

I’ll have to see the actual results to know whether I’ll find this useful, but it certainly looks interesting and is worth signing up for the invite.

Saad, thanks for posting the link to the video. I’m still not sure how useful I’ll find Viewzi, but I agree there’s promise there.

Steven Bradley’s last blog post..Update On Domain Move
Viewzi is Beautiful Says:

May 18th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

[...] other reviews can be found here at Mashable and Marketing Pilgrim. .gallery { margin: auto; } .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; [...]
Ryan Says:

May 27th, 2008 at 9:33 pm

I would love an invite.

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