A Graphical Search Engine: SearchMe.com

SearchMe.com is a new search engine that is available as a public beta test. It shows a lot of promise. SearchMe's graphical display of web pages is quite similar to Macintosh and iPod displays: you can "flip" through the pages. Finding relevant web pages usually is faster in SeachMe.com than in traditional search engines such as Google or Yahoo. This is especially true when the pages have lots of graphics or contain sophisticated visual layouts. The results are difficult to describe in words but you will understand within seconds after making your first search.

Enter a search term into the search box, and then use the scroll bar at the bottom to view the found pages.

Try it. It's free. It is also in beta right now, so you might stumble over a bug or two: http://www.SearchMe.com.

Comments

[Martha]

A bug or two?? It never brought up anything! What was interesting is that icons immediately appeared for the different categories in which the search name was found - but it never got beyond that point and no pages appeared. Neither did a scroll bar.

[Vivian]

It worked for me, but did not find anything I had not found through other search engines. Displaying the page images seems much ado about not much.

[Pegeen]

I thought it was worthwhile and did bring up pages I had not seen before on other searches. I liked the interface a lot.

[Stanley]

It appears to be an amazingly fast way to flip through pages as compared using other search engines and waiting for websites to load. It can be very useful to look for pages that you haven't seen in previous searches.

[Barbara]

Interesting search engine! I tried it and it brought up several pages on the subject and information that I had not seen. The information included complete family group sheets on related family lines as well as civil war enactment groups of his company.

[Patsy]

I entered a search for Glenflesk, County Kerry (Ireland), and found many interesting pages. It even showed me pages that contained items I had posted. I loved having the ability to see the page instantly, and seeing the exerpt at the bottom of the page which contained my query. On one page, I saw a highlited link which led me directly to the area that contained information on my query. This search engine is definitely one I would use reguarly.

[Patsy]

That's "regularly"!

[Sharon Rone Self]

Liked it except that pages were too small to read- needs an "enlarge" feature. Easier to flip through!

[graham]

I agree with Sharon; totally unreadable to visually handicapped like me but "if & when" it may prove valuable.

[Judy Brown]

It worked very well for me. My Grandfather was in Troop A of the Rough Riders and when I entered his name it brought up every page that I knew about plus one that I didn't. These were all first and then the ones following were for people with his same last name or first name. I was quite impressed and will be spending more time on this one. Thanks for the info.

[Gwen M.McCullagh]

This worked very well for me and brought up many hits missed by other engines. I did not have problems reading the pages once brought to full size. I will use it frequently.

[Dennis]

It IS fun! A lot of repetition, but some very interesting finds, too. Thanks for the referral.

[JINNY COLLINS]

WOW! I like it! As for being able to "See" the page? Just double click, and it's full screen! Amazing.
Great site - thanks, Dick!

[Tim Agazio]

Dick Hillenbrand at the Upstate New York Genealogy Blog (http://ny-genes.blogspot.com) actually wrote about Searchme 11 days ago and I've been playing around with it since...there's a lot of potential here.

Tim Agazio

[Gordon Banks]

It did not seem to do very well in genealogical searches that I did on ancestors that I know have web presence. In fact, it only found those so famous they had Wikipedia articles, such as Anne Marbury Hutchinson. Google generally had the most relevant pages at the very top. It's pretty, I'll give them that. Maybe they just haven't done enough indexing yet.

[hslanham]

I really like it.
It takes a few moments to start loading but after that, it moves right along.
Then, each page takes a few seconds to come into focus.
I am picking up some new stuff on ancestors with unusual names. Some not seen before.
Thanks!

[hslanham]

Well, it was good.
Now, I cannot get on at all.
Must be too many of your readers using it.

[Renee Zamora]

I was pleased to see that it has a Firefox add-on you can download to add to your search engines. Pretty cool!

[Lynda]

I was impressed. I liked the quick flow of page after page. I liked the fact that I could quickly see the new page and know (Yep -- seen it before) or WHAT! Click and the page loads. Sometimes the entry of a name (example: john doe ) and it would ask me if I wanted to search "genealogy". That didn't happen as often as I would like -- but I saw pages that I had NOT found. Or maybe I did -- but it's been a long time. I'll definitely call this one a "keeper" and be using it again!!!

[Sharon]

Which brings to mind another pet peeve! Will Ancestry, World Vital Records, or Footnote ever come up with full scroll features for documents? Clicking "next" and waiting for pages to load are really pains! Are they even working on it? I'd LOVE to just scroll down and through a census record!

[Dale Mower]

OK, is it geeky to get excited about a search engine? I seriously think this is totally cool. I am a visual guy, but it is so much faster, not to mention easier and faster, to scroll through the ipodesque screen shots. With the search terms highlighted and the pop screens at the bottom of the images, you can easily make a decision on whether it is a site you want to look at closer or not. It's the next generation of search engines and I'm on board. Will definitely be using this very often.