People Search Digest

Search engines are truly being taken to a new level: the clouds. Named Alternative Search Engine of 2007, by the popular blog, AltSearchEngines, Quintura has floated in with an innovative new way to search. They’ve labeled their site as a “visual search engine,”which is fairly accurate in describing how it functions. Quintura has been online as a search engine since November 2005, but in recent news, they have launched a new widget. But let’s back up; basically, it all starts with a cloud.

The core search cloud is really just as cluster of words. The initial cloud has basic popular topics like entertainment, games, religion, sports, movies, books, shopping, and more. A user can click on one of these broad topics and instantly start discovering popular results for that topic. If a user is looking for something a little more specific, there is the ability to refine the search. For instance, if a user clicks on “sports,” it will refine the search into different subtopics like, headlines, league, basketball, scores, international, etc. Half of the page will appear with results, while the other half will provide the user with the opportunity to refine their search further. The user can continue refining until they find the results they need. Still, if a more specific search is required, simply enter a term in the query box at the top. The same page with a new cloud of topics split with results will appear, and the user can keep narrowing the search from there. You can save and share your searches with your friends and family.

Recently, Quintura is introducing a widget that brings this same idea of a search clud to individual websites. Site owners can install this smart widget onto their blog or site. The user has control over whether the search results will be generated only from their site or from a network of sites. Search advertisements will also show up in the cloud, and the revenue from click-throughs to those advertisements will be split with the site owner. The cloud is so easily to customize and embed on a site that visitors to the site can even save their cloud and put it on their own sites. They’ve even introduced an easy-to-use widget specifically designed for children, and have a widget that a user can install in their Firefox browser for personal usage.

It’s a great tool to for personal and professional use. So, go sign up for a beta invitation today and have your search consciousness raised.