Searching with oSkope
Oskope is a visual search tool that searches Flickr, Amazon, YouTube, and Ebay (though I couldn’t get the Ebay search to return anything). While searching Flickr I fist searched for images tagged Second Life and found a few really great images. As you can see below, my results were displayed in a pile that I could interact with and move around (and zoom in and out on). Fortunately, I was able to create an oSkope account and save those great images for later use.
The different search result views are really what make this an interesting interface. Next I searched for coffee, and decided to display the results on a grid. It is much easier to see all the results this way (duh).
The most interesting search I did was on Amazon for graphics tablets. I displayed these results on a graph by price and sales rank. Of course, there is some resolution lost on the accuracy of sales rank in this view, but for an overall view it is a faster way to evaluate results.
There are two things that I initially think would make this search better. The first - it really needs to be faster. The interface seems to hang occasionally which is frustrating. I’d also like to see the licensing information returned with the Flickr photos. It would be a good way to search for Creative Commons-licensed photos.
Results of searching Flickr for the tag SecondLife, displayed in a pile. I saved a few of the images in My Folder. Too bad I can’t create more than one folder for different searches
Search results from Flickr on the tag coffee, displayed in a pile
The same search displayed as a grid
A Search of Amazon for the term “graphics tablet”, this time displayed on a graph.
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