Soovle

Let the web help. Just when you thought there was nothing new in search, along comes a new idea. Soovle is a cross between a multi search engine and a visual search engine. If you imagine the concept of a clock, with search engine results available at different times on the clock, you input your search in the middle, get keyword results on the 'hours' and you can then skim the results around so that you can see what's available at 12 o'clock.

If that sounds vague, let me explain better with an image:

So we have our query - eBooks - in the input panel, and results from Bing, YouTube, Answers.com, Wikipedia, Google, Amazon and Yahoo around the edge. Simply click on the icon under the search bar to see the results move to the top of the screen. Click on the results that you like the best to be taken to that specific search engine. As an aside, the method of moving around the screen does look quite snazzy! You can add in more search engines; the default is 7, but you can go up to 11 or 15 which you can choose from pre-assigned options. I was disappointed not to see DuckDuckGo or Blekko available however, and there were several US based tools (such as a Walmart engine) which would never be of any interest to me. It was sometimes slow - Wikipedia particularly, so be patient, or concentrate on taking a look at the results that come up at once - the others should be along shortly.

It's a very nice tool. It's fun to play with, gives a good variety of results and it's a different approach. Well worth exporing.

Comments

[Nick Luft]

Soovle is a lovely search experience.

I love the way it displays ambiguity of meaning or associated phrases for each term. It enables me to say, no I wanted the Canon EOS 600D MANUAL, not a review or a sales site, after I search "canon eos 600d".

It is great that I can see the youtube results in one place - that is where the videos are; amazon in one place - that is where the books and book reviews are. A neat solution to searching for a particular media, like a video or image.

My only criticism is that the search hits dry up if you use more than 3 or 4 terms. I cannot find things I know exist and can find directly via Google or Bing. Probably not enough processing power to be able to do this.

Thanks for sharing.