Wizards of Oz

"Life is fraughtless ... when you're thoughtless."

24.7.07

Tools for Search, Fun

Zenpundit is test-driving a cool new visual search tool called searchCrystal. This tool allows you to visually compare, remix and mash hits from a variety of feeds in one simple interface. To wit:



Although this is a neat GUI for quickly comparing multiple search engines, even allowing the user to manually adjust the radius of the concentric circles, I found myself wondering "what's missing?" from the display. As one who frequently tailors and refines my Boolean searches until I get a good sense of what's available, I found the "top ten" default display deck for each engine on searchCrystal too constraining.

But rather than do a true in-depth review of searchCrystal, I decided to help the kids make our own "The Simpsons" avatars:


Matt Groening has come a long way from the Life in Hell comics I enjoyed in college! If you want to make your own avatars, go to The Simpsons Movie. H/T to Younghusband of Coming Anarchy (whose own avatars are uploaded to flickr).

Labels: , ,

2 Comments:

At 25/7/07 04:43 , Blogger Unknown said...

Thank you for mentioning searchCrystal and embedding a crystal on your blog!
I am one of the developers of searchCrystal.
Sounds like you may enjoy the free full version which lets you compare up to 500 results, add comments and share and compare saved crystals with your friends (and more). It offers you a powerful research tool. Curious to read your "true in-depth review" :)

 
At 25/7/07 07:23 , Blogger Sean Meade said...

now those avatars are important! ;-)

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home