The folks behind Blekko have produced a search engine that is designed to work well with tablet based devices. izik (pronounced Isaac) uses the concept that we're all familiar with, of swiping across a screen to move content. Rather than scroll down as per 'normal' search engines, izik provides content that is best viewed by horizontal scrolling. It works for the iPad, and Android tablets, and you can view it on their mobile web version too (the same link as previously given).
Simply search for what you need, and izik will display various categories of information - quick answer, images, top results and so on - tailored to your search. A search for 'dog' returned categories such as pets and veterinary, while gave me recipes and travel. The screenshot below shows you what the results page looks like:
If we then do a side by side comparison with Google, we can see the difference:
I think the results from izik are clearer to view and they are more user friendly. Although there's less on a page, the side swipe will continually reveal more information.
izik didn't outperform Google everywhere however; a search for '3D printing' returned more recent material, and in greater amounts than izik found, and in my Everton example above, recent results were more easily found using Google. However, playing with izik on my iPad was an absolute delight. Side swipe scrolling worked really well and was immediately comfortable. (If you don't have a tablet, try the web based version, linked above, and give it a whirl. If you prefer to look down the screen however, you can expand out a category of results, and izik will display them down the screen.
izik is a really nice idea - it's got a great design and it's very easy and intuitive to use. I have no doubt that on a tablet at least it's going to swiftly become my favourite search engine. I'm also very pleased that it's been put together by Blekko, which is an engine that I have a lot of time for. It's this type of innovation which is sadly lacking with Google these days - they're still stuck in a model that they are unable to get out of. Great for the web, but when it comes to new devices, I think they really need to pull their socks up and try and look at things in a totally different way. izik is a really nice breath of fresh air.
If you still want more, take a look at the video.
izik: take search for a joy ride from blekko on Vimeo.
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