My biggest frustration with non-standard search portals is that you can’t tell why it gave you the results it gave you. A thumbnail screenshot of a website doesn’t give you any information about what content it contains. For example, head over to “goosh.org” and search for “web probation of a codicil.” It immediately give you 4 very useful results. On viewzi, I have to type “probation of a codicil,” then I have to choose how I want the results displayed. If I choose a method that involves screenshot thumbnails, I have to wait 20-30 seconds for the thumbnails to load, then when I mouse over them, the text is far too small to be of any use and the results do not include excerpts or descriptions. I’d have to click through to each and every page in order to get some sense of what is on it.
If I’m trying to locate information, the very last thing I care about is the color scheme chosen by the various websites in the result list.
I’m not sure why the screenshots and text are too small to be of any use to you, they display fine from my monitor. Maybe the “Web Screenshot View” would display better for you?
I tried out goosh.org, and I’m sure it would be helpful for search queries such as “probation of a codicil”, but I found it very limited. But please realize Viewzi assumes you may not want the first four results from Google.
I search for “Boston” on goosh.org, searching for the band, but only receive results for the city of Boston. Viewzi offers music, video, and so much more. Even if I was actually searching for information about the city, I could easily pick a view to lead me to that.
I hope you’ll give Viewzi another try. The more you use it, the more it will, hopefully, grow on you.
The problem with the screenshots is that they do not indicate what is on the page. In my view, that’s the biggest problem with this kind of search method. Once you have your results, the only realistic criteria that you can use to choose which site to visit is what its layout looks like from a distance. Maybe you’re after a different target audience, but I just can’t imagine any scenario in which I would ever want to do that.
That being said, the music search feature is the best I’ve ever seen. Embedding ribbon flash players into the results is great. Looking for music is a case where you want a specific object on the page, not the page itself, and it is helpful to abstract the content in that fashion. I usually use SkreemR for music searches and I will have to do some comparison testing now.
My biggest frustration with non-standard search portals is that you can’t tell why it gave you the results it gave you. A thumbnail screenshot of a website doesn’t give you any information about what content it contains. For example, head over to “goosh.org” and search for “web probation of a codicil.” It immediately give you 4 very useful results. On viewzi, I have to type “probation of a codicil,” then I have to choose how I want the results displayed. If I choose a method that involves screenshot thumbnails, I have to wait 20-30 seconds for the thumbnails to load, then when I mouse over them, the text is far too small to be of any use and the results do not include excerpts or descriptions. I’d have to click through to each and every page in order to get some sense of what is on it.
If I’m trying to locate information, the very last thing I care about is the color scheme chosen by the various websites in the result list.
Christopher,
I’m not sure why the screenshots and text are too small to be of any use to you, they display fine from my monitor. Maybe the “Web Screenshot View” would display better for you?
I tried out goosh.org, and I’m sure it would be helpful for search queries such as “probation of a codicil”, but I found it very limited. But please realize Viewzi assumes you may not want the first four results from Google.
I search for “Boston” on goosh.org, searching for the band, but only receive results for the city of Boston. Viewzi offers music, video, and so much more. Even if I was actually searching for information about the city, I could easily pick a view to lead me to that.
I hope you’ll give Viewzi another try. The more you use it, the more it will, hopefully, grow on you.
Jami J
The problem with the screenshots is that they do not indicate what is on the page. In my view, that’s the biggest problem with this kind of search method. Once you have your results, the only realistic criteria that you can use to choose which site to visit is what its layout looks like from a distance. Maybe you’re after a different target audience, but I just can’t imagine any scenario in which I would ever want to do that.
That being said, the music search feature is the best I’ve ever seen. Embedding ribbon flash players into the results is great. Looking for music is a case where you want a specific object on the page, not the page itself, and it is helpful to abstract the content in that fashion. I usually use SkreemR for music searches and I will have to do some comparison testing now.