oSkope – Highly Intuitive Visual Search

by Nathan Danforth on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 · 1 comment

in Search, Visualization

Sure, other search engines provide the ability to search for images and more, but it’s really how you interact with that information that’s important.

oSkope is a search assistant with a highly intuitive visual interface. oSkope lets you browse quickly through a large number of images and preview information with minimal paging.

oskope-visual-search.jpg

For starters, I love the drag and drop feature on my search results. The feature mimics many of the coolest gadgets on the market today like the iPhone and the Microsoft Surface.

How it works:

  1. Select favorite online service: Amazon, Ebay, Flickr, YouTube etc.
  2. Drill down into subcategories via pull down menu or search function
  3. Results appear as thumbnails in display area. (Thumbnails can be dragged and dropped to rearrange favorite items)
  4. Hovering over image will display preview with link to original page
  5. Registered users have the ability to drag favorite item into “My Folder” for future viewing.


You can switch between display modes, or “views”. Currently the following views are offered: grid, stack, pile, list, and graph.

While the various views add value by loading instantly and providing new ways of approaching your search results, the Graph View is the real winner among the group.

oskope-graph-view.jpg

The graph view is special because it changes depending on the service you select. Your results are plotted against relevant axes. For example…

  • Amazon.com (X = Sales Rank, Y = Price)
  • Ebay.com (X = Time Left in Auction, Y = Price)
  • Youtube.com (X = Date, Y = Ranking)
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Category and Tags

This post filed in the following categories:

  • Search - Search encompasses methods of thoroughly looking for specific data or information.
  • Visualization - Visualization is any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message.

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Comments

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Chris Dalia Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 12:26 pm

Check our newly patented search solution at http://www.pairtreesearch.com/videos/ for easy to visual but hard to describe complex objects such as furniture, shoes, textiles, lighting fixtures, architectural elements, etc.

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