February 21, 2008
Posted by Ryan Graves
ManagedQ: visual search (awesome)
My friends and I are always trying to think of completely new ways to do things. It’s tough. Sometimes it seems like new ideas are running out but companies like ManagedQ are proving that theory wrong. Thank God.
ManagedQ has completely redesigned the search experience. They are currently using Google search results (with some hopes, it sounds like, to not always use Google) but delivering them in a totally new way, visually. Right now Google’s search results appear in a list from most relevent to less relevant. In order to see the page you have to click each link and wait for it to load. ManagedQ removes that click for you by displaying your search results in little screen shots of each page.
I really think that this idea is revolutionary. I am very easily excited about new ideas and start-ups like this but sometimes you just have a gut feeling. This idea is one of those that I think Google would just love to consume.
Another great idea that ManagedQ incorporates is the “topic” bar on the left. It categorized related topics by person, place, or thing and as you scroll over the topic it tells you which of your results paged included that topic. In the example here I’ve search “surfing”. The number one person result for this search was appropriately “Kelly Slater” (indisputably the most famous surfer in the world… after all he did date Pamela Anderson). Next, the pllaces related to my search were Costa Rica and California. With the exception of Hawaii I think they nailed it again. 
Here is the founder David Stat discussing why he started ManagedQ and some of the thought behind it.
Search hasn’t changed in a decade. Result quality has improved, but what you see has not changed. The search interface has remained stagnant at the command level, So why not a search application, rather than create a search engine, we can sit on top of the results of any search engine. Currently we use Google.
I would encourage you to begin to use ManagedQ for various searches and see if this visual search results method is appealing to you. Keep in mind you are getting the same results that you would receive on Google except now you are add free. (We may discuss how Google is allowing this to occur in a follow-up post) Please comment your opinions of ManagedQ and their new search presentation here on ActionsTalk.
3 Comments
February 21, 2008
I agree with this review. ManagedQ is a really awesome new technology that puts a nice UI and some real analytical horsepower over Google. The search application is the right way to go. I think that 2008 could be the year that people begin to desire more than just what Google offers as the search market has felt static for years. I look for these guys to catch on this year.
Their messenging is fairly bold. They talk about “revolutionizing search”
February 22, 2008
Great find, Ryan! I’ve been playing around with ManagedQ for the past hour and love it! I can’t believe they’re only a few weeks ago – i’m so excited to see what they evolve into!
February 29, 2008
Bob-I agree, very bold. Keep in mind though that many companies like this one start with a very strong, confident statement to first, provide motivation and to second, drive a vision.
If I recall Google had a pretty bold claim to start…it worked out.
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