Kartoo Search Engine Presents Results as a Map

cdupree writes "I've just run across a search engine called Kartoo---anyone else know it? Apparently it's been up since April 25. It presents its results in a graphical fashion, sort of like a map, allowing you to refine your query interactively. Admittedly, the "working" picture is a bit dorky, but the site is not dripping with ads (except for itself), and it's interesting to see the connections it finds when you enter, for example, "slashdot." My initial take on the thing is, it looks pretty, it presents the standard information in a new and different manner, but I haven't used it enough to get much in-depth knowledge of how best to use it. Has anyone had experience with this method of presenting search results? Is there background available on the folks who produced it beyond the trivial amount on the web site?" This sounds like a plug, but the few searches I tried with this engine to my surprise turned up interesting, relevant results. Update: 05/28 14:29 GMT by T : Laurent Baleydier adds: "Since last night, kartoo's requests have been multiplied by 20. At this moment, we can't respond to all those requests. We really apologize and we are doing as fast as possible in order to give you the best services."

An incredibly obnoxious search engine.

[Sivar]

Searches take entirely too long (about ten seconds. May not seem like alot, but it adds up) and the main page is Flash galore. You are also redirected immediately when you enter, so you have to hit "back" *realfast* to get back to Slashdot. The idea of presenting results as a web is kinda neat, but it ends at "kinda neat." The results are confusing and look disturbingly similar to the area of the computer tables behind my three computers--everything interconnected and difficult to follow.

I commend them on creating an original and refreshingly different idea in search engines, but I doubt Google has anything to worry about.

At least they run Linux [netcraft.com]

dancing llamas

[mrpuffypants]

the problem with this and a lot of other search engines is that they always try to 'revolutionize' the searching experience.

Back 'in the day' Altavista and Yahoo did it right: focus on searching and that's all. If i go to the library to find a book i don't need to look at a dancing llama for 10 seconds before i enter, it's just useless and flagrant.

Now, though, we have Google, which has realized what makes a search engine useful, and look at it: it's the most popular on the internet.

Re:Flash?

[NanoGator]

"Just what everyone needs: a flash-based UI for a search engine."

Did it ever occur to you that Flash isn't the cause of your annoyance, it's the people who make the flash movies? Attack of the Clones sucked, but don't blame Digital Film for it.

They're gonna have to do a lot to clean it up

[Dynedain]

They better drop the flash stuff, and clean up stuff for bandwidth reasons. It appears that they just search other engines, not a bad thing, but with /. hitting it now, the searches merely time out.

Not only that, but every section of the website that is supposed to have some feature (search bar for your web page, screensaver, startpage, etc.) has something completely different in it. Like for instance the "put kartoo in your startpage" results in "email your friends about kartoo". And "install kartoo on your website" results in simply link logos. "screensaver" results in desktop backgrounds.

I applaud what these guys are trying to do, but it looks to me like they have been focusing on things other than achieving their goal.

Re:An incredibly obnoxious search engine.

[lucifuge31337]

Or learn what the SHIFT key does.

The search engine sucks. It's not a /. problem.

Your inability to use a browser is also not a /. problem.

Re:Interesting results...

[ninewands]

Well, it may work with IE due to the webmaster using "stupid browser tricks" but I got javascript errors popping up faster than I could close them using the HTML site in Mozilla 0.9.9. I finally had to "killall -9 mozilla-bin" to get off the site. A search site has got to be browser-agnostic if it's going to succeed commercially.

If you ask me, the site's not ready for prime time, and it's damn sure not load-balanced well enough to withstand the /. effect.

Of course it returns interesting results, its new

[Anonymous Coward]

Search engines are best when they're young. No matter how good their algorithms or how impressive their hardware, over time two effects come to dominate the search results:

1. Dredge starts to accumulate in the form of dead links, evaporated hosts and redundant/irrelevant information. Combating this in turn might lead to

2. Consolidation and stratification of the relatively few "constants", which usually translates to a high predominance of trustworthy but staid (e.g. corporate) results. Often a diminishing of the number of voices is the result.

Therefore it's nice (brave...) to see a new search engine come along. Google is wonderful, but it is beginning to show it's age. Maybe we just need a new search engine every couple of years.