Will You SearchMe?

Startup Search Engine SearchMe.com has no shortage of capital - the visually impressive search engine has already raised about $44 million from such venture luminaries as Sequoia and Lehman Brothers, and DAG Ventures.

The approach is interesting and fairly unique. Searchme allows you to actually browse results pages from a very appealing "page flipping" user interface.

Is this a more intuitive way to choose "good" results than a big results page list at Google? I think the short term answer is no, but the long term answer is probably yes. Google's effectiveness is partly from fairly high search quality but also the appeal of a simple, information intuitive interface we've all come to know and most of us like. However for some users the Google results are too overwhelming, leaving them confused about choosing from dozens of text snippets, many of which are only partly representative of the search query. More importantly, as bandwidth improves and monitor sizes increase there is likely to be a substantial market for much more graphically intensive user interfaces, and SearchMe is certainly a prime candidate for that market.

Searchme Launches (private beta). $31 million in backing from Sequoia

Searchme is a new search engine that captures images of web pages and allows users to navigate visually through these page snapshots.

Searchme describes themselves as follows:

Searchme lets you see what you're searching for. As you start typing, categories appear that relate to your query. Choose a category, and you'll see pictures of web pages that answer your search. You can review these pages quickly to find just the information you're looking for, before you click through.

Founders John Holland and Randy Adams have received significant backing from Sequoia - some $31 million so far.

With a billion pages indexed so far and Google hot on their heels with a similar offering Searchme has their work cut out for them. Visual navigation is appealing, though the inconsistencies of web page design and the poor information architecture of most websites may make this approach problematic.

Standard text search helps standardize the output and the comparisons of websites so that we can apply our human sensibilities to find what we want quickly. Searchme seems to be assume that you *can* judge the book by the cover, and seeing the web pages will allow us to drill down more effectively. On the other hand if Searchme can do a great job with the initial indexing it may work well, helping users avoid the annoyance of jumping back and forth between a search engine and the sites you *thought* were what you wanted.

Searchme.com has videos and descriptions online now, but to try the service you'll need to sign up for the beta.