The rather popular SearchMe visual search engine has launched a mobile version of its service that includes a lot of the same features and UI as its desktop brethren.
Instead of text-based search results, SearchMe Mobile provides thumbmail images of webpages related to your keyword search. Next to the titles and pictures of web pages that match any given query, a list of categories is listed that can be selected for further refinement.
âSearchMeâs visual search is now available to billions of mobile users, offering a new and better way to search the Web,â said Randy Adams, SearchMe Founder and CEO. âSearchMeâs interface makes it easy to find what you are looking because we show you pictures of the web sites without the delay of loading them in your browser. On mobile devices this is a real time saver and simply a better way to search the web.â
I’ve used the desktop version of SearchMe before, and I’ve been dissapointed by the quality of the search results. Even though the coverflow nature of the results is nice on the eyes, results for even the most simple keywords just don’t make sense. For example, a quick search of “Mobile Marketing Watch” via SearchMe returns an unusual collection of results. The main page for MMW doesn’t even show up, while the first result even close is a post from back in October of 2007.
If their mobile version is as unprecise as their desktop version, I see major problems in the future. All I see that SearchMe has going for it is its sleek interface, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to satisfy users of mobile search.
