Visual Search Engines are becoming more and more common it seems. I haven't used them much because I am stuck in the google rut. I'm so used to using Google that it doesn't occur to me to try something new out. I can see some benefits to these search engines that I think my students will enjoy. The search results are "blended" or you could say layered because they provide text resources, video resources, even twitter resources and they are presented in a picture format which has greater interest appeal I think. If a student is trying to find a website they have visited before they will be more successful using a visual search like Searchme where they can see the webpage as they flip through the results.
Visual search sites that offer information in different formats will create a more thorough research experience and can help a student create a better project perhaps.
Other visual searches like touchgraph are very visual and I'm sure would appeal to a certain group of visual people/students. I do not care for touchgraph however, because the minute I see that cluster map loaded with multiple circles and lines I want to close the site. It is too much for my eye. It seems confusing and overwhelming to me and I don't even want to attempt to straighten the mess out. However, when I do attempt I can see that the cluster map has divided the information into different groups which is nice and helpful, but I still don't like it.
Overall, I admit I like Google the best. It's a nice linear list and it seems very clear and easy to use. Like I mentioned earlier I am stuch in that rut. I did like using searchme and redzee and I would be willing to add them to my list of search engines to use. I don't see the visual search engines taking over just yet but they are slowly creeping up on us.
Here are a couple good wedsites I found while I was taking a look at these search engines. You know how it is, one thing leads to another and the next thing you know you are swimming in a wealth of knowledge and you wish you could take it all in.
http://www.geocities.com/vance_stevens/searchen.htm
http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/usia/home.html
Alison, do you use any visual search engines with your class?
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Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteMany are stuck in the "Google rut" and your efforts to break out of limitations set by inertia. SeachMe and several other engines deliver nice visual interfaces that can be of significant help to make information more accessible in a teaching environment - but they are not visual search engines. Visual search engines allow you to enter an image rather than a word as a search query and thus open a completely new world. Visuvi [http://www.visuvi.com] is a visual search engine and I'd be happy to share details as they become available and have you and your students experiment with it.
Florian
info@visuvi.com
I'm so interested to see these posts from others on your blog. I think your point about Google brings up a bigger issue, we want to teach the way we learn and in the way that is most comfortable to us as educators. Perhaps it is time to step out of our comfort zone and offer options that we are not totally comfortable with. Being the coach on the side and also learning from our students can be very empowering for both teacher and learner.
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