Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

Filed under: Features, Beta, Search, web 2.0

Viewzi visual search engine gives you a dozen new ways to search


Text based search engines are all right if you're looking for text-based web pages. But Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google all have features that let you search for images or videos, because let's face it, that's what you're looking for on the internet much of the time. But the major search engine's approach toward image and video search feels a lot like the old fashioned approach to text-based search. You get a list of results, a brief description, and a link to the original source. If you're lucky, you may get the ability to watch a video or view a larger version of the thumbnail without leaving the search page, but that's about it.

Viewzi is one of a handful of new web sites that's aimed at making visual search a little more... visual. Like visual search engine SearchMe, Viewzi lets you scroll between screenshots of web pages. But it doesn't stop there. Viewzi offers over a dozen different ways to view search results. You can pick your favorite view and then conduct a search. Or you can rely on Viewzi to automatically detect the type of information you're probably looking for and select a view for you.

For example, if you're searching for a song title, Viewzi will move the MP3 search view to the top of the list so you can find and listen to songs. If you search for "weather in Philadelphia," Viewzi will recommend a weather view or a news view, which shows associated content like a weather forecast or news stories related to your search.

Viewzi launched a public beta today, which means the service, which we first mentioned last summer is now open to anyone. But it is still a beta, and some search views work better or load more quickly than others.
jobs & resumes
iPhone developer

Groupon - Chicago, IL (3 weeks ago)

See More Relevant Jobs ›

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse