Galaxy IT, Inc. - Don't Just Search. Explore. Oh boy. I really hate this - along comes a brand new search engine, with a bunch of keen excited people who think they've got a great product and I just think... well, probably best if you imagine.
Right, the idea behind GalaxyIT is to give you a new way of searching, visually rather than in lists. This is not new and bunches of search engines do this already. Which is fine, because more options are better than less. The idea is that at GalaxyIT you type in your search term and get a bunch of results - 8 of them in fact, arranged around your search term. You can then drop a result into that 'middle' box and re-run the search. You can also zoom out to see more options. So it's a cross between visual search, clustering and categories.
The problem is that when you do this, it's impossible to read the results. At all. Not even a little bit.
Very little of that makes much sense. I can't see any particular reason for the groupings, so they're not really clustered as such, there doesn't appear to be any relevance or linking between them as you'd get with Kanoodle and visually it just looks horrible! Sure, I can get a bit more information with a mouseover, but nothing useful such as URL, last update and so on - just a bit of summary. There's supposed to be a 'Classic' version and an 'Organized' version, and certainly things happen when I click on the options, but I've no clear idea exactly what!
Now, they're in Alpha territory, so these things are to be expected, and I'm being harsh. However, they're out there wanting to be tried out, so that's what's happening. There's a list of their top ten things they'll be hammered on, which is great because it saves me a lot of work. Load times are dire, but that's not an issue at this stage, though they'd best sort it out. Ads aren't relevant. Who cares at this stage, it's not an issue. Really though, if they're thinking people are going to be worried about that, they're talking to the wrong people. They don't have advanced search options, because they say they're not Google. Well yeah, but the offering requires some way of focusing a search, and I'm simply not getting it from what they currently have. They list a bunch of other things, but I'll add to the list - no Help screen. If you're doing something new and different, a Help screen is essential. Helps idiots like me work out the fine differences between 'Classic' and 'Organized' dontcha know. I was irritated with the limited number of searches I could run though. If you don't want too much load on your server, don't make it open to everyone - that's what an Alpha version is for surely? Keep it closed to a limited number who can hammer it before letting the masses play.
In summary, I can't see any reason why I'd want to use this. There are plenty of engines that do the same type of thing rather better, more easily and clearer on the screen. Think through the display issues, work out what is most important, and then come back in 6 months or so. Even in Alpha I can see this isn't going to be ready for prime time soon. Sorry guys - but I DO appreciate your enthusiasm!
Phil,
As far as visal search goes I think that one "little" family friendly engine out of Florida has a pretty cool little concept. Check out www.redzee.com and do a "search2.0" it has a very cool visual search. Reminds me of something apple would do if it was in the search game.
NOw i think results are limites and you probably won't find a lot of longtail searches but it a "different" approach.
Maybe you could do a review on it?
Posted by: Bryant | January 25, 2008 at 06:21 PM
Oh my, I swear I took one look at the image of the interface and went "ewww." I've reviewed a bunch of search engines myself, including ones that are taking a visual approach, but this looks unusually bad to me.
Posted by: Terri | February 22, 2008 at 07:54 PM