Visual Search Engines

There was an interesting article in the 3/1/2005 issue of Library Journal that talks about a new wave in the world of search engines.

Grokker (one of the best of these new tools) is partnering with libraries (most notably Stanford) to develop a visual search engine. Grokker is also talking to EBSCO to allow "visual" searching of its databases. The author hints in the article that Google might add a visual search engine as an optional interface.

I downloaded the 30-day trial of Grokker (it costs $49 per copy after that) and found it to be quite interesting. It is particularly good if you do not know exactly what you are looking for -- it is a browsing tool. I was able to find some information I was looking for that I could not find with a Google search.