Clickstream

Two Interesting Search Visualizations

I was playing with Ujiko today and I'm not sure I'm sold on it yet, but I do like the idea of automatic classification and showing the results. They create colored blocks in the center pane of the interface that equate to clusters of related materials and allow you to refine your search. I'm always tweaking terms and and advanced keywords in google to egt what I want. I like the idea that the search interface might take some of this work on for me. So far, the results are mixed. But it is pretty.

From the Ujiko web site:
1. The first search engine which evolves with your expertise,
2. Regroup search results by thematic on an intuitive circular map,
3. Offer an innovative and advance information management system,
4. Offer personalization of results according to thematic and previous searches,
5. Propose different visual skins to change the way your UJIKO applet looks

The other search interface they have is Kartoo. This meta-search tool creates a map of the clustered results. I didn't find it as useful because not enough information is displayed with the map to decide whether the search results were relevant, instead displaying a keyword used for grouping and the web site name under a collection of documents. I did like the way it highlights the links between two web sites containing hits.

Both are worth a look to see what's available. Imagine using some of these techniques to display text mining results, particularly in an area where you might be linking text results to tabular data, as in warranty analysis. I like exploratory interfaces, and that's the advantage of a map metaphor.

Posted by Mark Sunday, January 15, 2006 7:10:00 PM | permalink |