First Look at SearchMe Beta

So it’s pretty obvious that we can’t get enough of SearchMe here at SearchFeature. It’s hands-down the coolest new innovation in search. It may be just a fad, or it could change search as we know it. It’s too early for me or anyone to predict, but many people who’ve seen it already have had good things to say about it.

SearchMe, for those of you who haven’t been following along, is a cool new visual search engine that’s right now in private beta. You can sign up for an invite to be amongst the select beta testers on their site, but there’s no guarantee you’ll get in. So for those of you who are still waiting on invites, we’ve got a quick first look for you. Hopefully these screenshots will hold you over until you’re able to check it out for yourself.

As our example search, I am going to use the website of one of our regular readers - TheVirtualLink. She wanted to know where she ranked for certain terms, so let’s see how she did.

When you log into SearchMe, this is what you’ll see:

As you notice, it’s very simplistic. I like that. Another striking thing about SearchMe is their use of a black background. I can’t really think of another search engine that strays too far from a standard white background, but the black works here. I think it adds to the presentation of the search results, which you’ll see shortly.

So let’s get started with a search query, and see how that looks. As I begin typing in my query, below the search box appear categories. The default search on SearchMe is to search across all categories, so if you want to search within a specific category you can click on one of the corresponding category icons. Alternatively, you could check out your all-inclusive results, and then from there explore any categories that spark your interest.

We’ll do a search across all categories to start. Once you’ve submitted your query, you’ll see a results page similar to this:

Does this look familiar? If you’ve ever used iTunes, an iTouch, or an iPhone, you’ll be familiar with this sort of interface - it looks just like Apple’s “cover flow” technology that allows you to search through your music by album cover. The bar below the images of the websites allows you to move through the pages. Unfortunately, and I wish they also had this feature, you can’t move through them by mousing over the images - you have to use the bar. It’s a little feature I would like to see, so I hope someone out there is listening.

Another thing you might notice is on each of the website images, you’ll see your search terms highlighted on the page in yellow. Neat.

On each of the images, as you bring them to the center focus, you’ll see at the bottom of the image the search result for that page - the same info you’d find in a Google or Yahoo search. Sometimes, depending on your screen that is a bit difficult to read and the text isn’t always so clear. But fret not! There’s another option. See that little up/down button below the scroll bar? Click that, and the search result will show in expanded size like this:

Whichever site you have brought to the front up top will be highlighted in a blue box. From this view, you can also choose to scroll through the text SERPs. Notice the blue scroll bar on the right-hand side.

To go to the search result of your choosing, you can simply click either the image or text result.

Like any other search engine allows you to, SearchMe will let you change its default settings. You can turn safe searching on or off to filter out adult-oriented results, and you can even change the search engine “theme” from the dark black “night” style to a brighter white “day” theme. But why mess with a good thing? I think the black looks cool. Lastly, you can also change the settings to have it open pages in either the same page or a new page.

So what are my overall impressions at this point? I really like it. I’m a sucker for a good presentation, and SearchMe delivers in that department. One area that could use improvement, however, is possibly documentation. Looking around I don’t really see any. Some advanced searching options would also be beneficial for those who’d like to go beyond a basic search, and that would help SearchMe rise above the novelty label.

So far, so good! I look forward to seeing SearchMe grow and progress throughout the beta process.