Addoursearch.com | Featured Sites

Ixquick.com - A Meta Search Engine With Privacy Credentials

URL:
http://www.ixquick.com

Info:
Alexa | Whois

Submitted by:
AOS

Ixquick.com is meta search engine that essentially consolidates results from many major search engines and web sites into one location.

Unlike other consolidation or aggregation search engines that just rehash the results from several of the major search engines, Ixquick takes this one step further by adding results from social media, news, and directory sites.

The Design

Now, Ixquick isn’t going to win any beauty contests, but the search results are well organized and easy to read.  However, I do have to mention that the site looks like it was designed circa 1996 and hasn’t been touched since. (the earth image behind the logo is an especially 90’s touch) More »

Ask.com - A Feature Loaded Alternative Search Engine

URL:
http://www.ask.com

Info:
Alexa | Whois

Submitted by:
AOS

Ask.com is one of the web’s most popular alternative search engines and an alternative to the major search engine players such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

The search results are rather impressive and compete on a level playing field with major search engines.  However, Ask.com does provide some advanced and unique features only found on this site.

The following paragraphs detail some of the unique features and my impressions of the interface.

More »

RedZee.com - A Visual Search Engine with “Character”

URL:
http://www.redzee.com

Info:
Alexa | Whois

Submitted by:
AOS

RedZee.com is an visual search engine, with a very attractive and alternative interface of it’s search results.  Instead of presenting it’s visitors with a list of web sites, RedZee provides an arching scroll feature that can be dragged using mouse inputs.

The one word I would probably describe this site, would be character… literally. The first thing you notice when you visit the homepage, is very large flash animation of a Red Zebra character.  Hence the name “red zee”.

While it does provide you with a very attractive and enjoyable interface, i did find a few quirks with the search results and usability that might present challenges for some visitors and will detail those in the following paragraphs. More »

Rowdii.com - An Easy To Use Search Engine with Social Commentary

URL:
http://www.rowdii.com

Info:
Alexa | Whois

Submitted by:
AOS

Rowdii.com is a new search engine with social commentary and linking capabilities.  By creating an account, users can comment and discuss the result with other users, as well as link sites together.

While the social commentary on search results is nothing new (See our review of Scour.com), the site does present some interesting features and a new take on search results. I’ll walk you through a few of my findings below of this very clean little search engine. More »

Addictomatic.com - A Topic Aggregation Site with Search Capabilities

URL:
http://www.addictomatic.com

Info:
Alexa | Whois

Submitted by:
AOS

Addictomatic is a topic aggregation site similar to Alltop.com or popurls.com in that it aggregates all the best content on the web into one location.  The main difference between Addict-o-matic and the other aggregation sites, is it’s focus on search and personalization.

While Addictomatic.com does provide you with a few canned or popular topics on it’s homepage, the real strength of this little application comes from it’s search capabilities.  Even though it doesn’t perform the search results as I expected, it’s still a nice addition to the genre.  Read further for a review of my experience and check out the site to decide for yourself. More »

Saturday Search Roundup - 8/31/2008 - 9/06/2008

Every Week we recap the sites and browser plugins we’ve reviewed throughout the week… just in case you missed one. If you would like to follow along and get updated when we add a new review and plugin, Subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Good week of interesting alternative search engines.  The highlight of this week would have to be Scour.com.  Sites that combine different major search engines into one are a dime-a-dozen, however Scour has taken it to a new dimension.

More »

Scour.com - Search Results with Social Input

URL:
http://www.scour.com

Info:
Alexa | Whois

Submitted by:
AOS

Scour.com is a new take on the social search engine Genre.  While most “social” search engines rely on group or growd input for finding results. However Scour uses major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, then allows it’s users to vote on results and provide comments as well.

On top of being a rather well thought out and useful search engine, Scour also “pays you to search”.  Essentially, if you sign up for an account with them, you earn points for every time you search. These points are then redeamable by means of a Scour branded Visa gift card.  This is an interesting concept, but one that’s been done before.  However, Scour is a useful search engine by itself… so you might as well get paid while you do it. More »

Blogs.com - A New Blog Search Engine By Six Apart.

URL:
http://www.blogs.com

Info:
Alexa | Whois

Submitted by:
AOS

Blogs.com is a new blog search engine by Six Apart… the makers of the popular hosted blog service TypePad.

The site doesn’t offer much new in the sense of search capabilities (besides a very easy to remember name), but it does provide some interesting editorial articles about the blogging community and spotlight blogs you can browse through. More »

Yoozila.com - A Clean Alternative Search Engine

URL:
http://www.yoozila.com

Info:
Alexa | Whois

Submitted by:
AOS

Yoozila.com is an alternative search engine with a clean and easy to use interface.  The actual search results are nothing new and pretty straight forward, but what does separate this site from others is it’s interface.  As Yoozila puts states it; “Why shouldn’t search results look nice?”.  And of course, why shouldn’t they?

As I mentioned above, the real strength of this web site is in it’s interface.  The results page includes many unique features and makes extensive use of AJAX and in-page features that allow you to better view your results.  Since this is pretty much all about the interface… the following paragraphs will pick it apart in detail and highlight some of the unique features. More »

Saturday Search Roundup - 8/24/2008 - 8/30/2008

Every Week we recap the sites and browser plugins we’ve reviewed throughout the week… just in case you missed one. If you would like to follow along and get updated when we add a new review and plugin, Subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Tools, Tools, Tools… this week was all about tools.
2 I’d like to highlight are CrunchBase and QuarkBase (close to the same name, but no business relationship).  CrunchBase is a user contributed Tech Company and Startup Directory from the TechCrunch network of sites.  QuarkBase is on the other end of the spectrum and uses an automated approach to it’s site.  Essentially it’s a mashup of various API’s, including one from Crunchbase. More »