After writing about SurfCanyon, I came across another search engine that brings a good focus to improving the user interface to search as well as adding a few nifty features. As mentioned by David Stat, the co-founder of ManagedQ (source: Venture Beat)
Stat points out that the basic search interface hasn’t evolved since Google’s early days, and that users still have to enter their queries into a “DOS-style command line.”
“It’s like no one’s invented Windows for search,” he says.
The search site provides a snapshot of pages with the classification of various categories connected to the keywords. For example, a search for Apple+iPhone gives me the links to Steve Jobs, Apple’s Stores, Reviews, accessories and competitive products in a single screen. It looks a bit cramped but once you get used to it it definitely proves to be useful.
An excerpt from AltSearchEngine :
For the past 15 years, improvements in the Search Experience have consisted of little more than a dressing-up of the same old ten text results. With ManagedQ, from the moment you enter your Search query, everything is different.
Other great features include the find as you type option – to see the keywords highlighted in all the search results as you type them in. For fast fact finding this negates the need to navigate away from your main search area. And as you move over the categorized links on the left side, the terms are highlighted in your search results as well.
All in all a ManagedQ great tool to try. It won’t give Google or any of the major search engines a scare, but it does raise the question as to whether the limits to the UI designs for search are not getting extended due to the somewhat static market shares in the search space.
