Visual search engines try to show us that there’s a better way to search than by looking at 10 links with snippets on a page and making an educated guess. Most try to say that they’re more intuitive. Searchme really is. Keep reading to find out more.
Let me say up front that I don’t see Searchme as a Google killer; you can’t search as fast with Searchme as you can search with Google, due to the nature of the interface. But the time you spend searching with it will be a lot more fun, and you have a much better chance of finding what you’re looking for on the first couple of tries.
I’ll start walking you through what it’s like to search with Searchme in the next section. Right now, though, I’ll point out that I’m not the only one who thinks the upstart company might have something. The $31 million it has raised to date includes investments from Sequoia; you may remember that VC firm as an early investor in a little search engine called Google.
Searchme boasts some good people too. Its chairman is Sequoia partner Mark Kvamme. Randy Adams, a longtime entrepreneur, is the CEO and co-founder with John Holland; Holland’s other hat is CMO. They all know the site needs a little work, since it’s in beta, and only has about a billion pages in its index. “We are no Google, of course, but we are trying something different to provide a new experience for search users,” Adams explained. “Most of all, we are trying to innovate in search, which is still largely a text and list experience.”
Meanwhile, Google provides the biggest hint that Searchme may be on the right track, as Kara Swisher, writing for BoomTown, noted that the leading search engine “does have a similar offering in its labs, but has not rolled it out.” But you’re probably tired of hearing the background; what’s so special about Searchme? I’m glad you asked.
Search Engine News 
