Monday, July 2, 2007

"TouchGraph "Visual Search Engine

TouchGraph is one of those services that will surprise you its features the first time you try it. TouchGraph lets you navigate information returned from Google, Amazon, and Facebook in a visual format right on their site. Other services have integrated TouchGraph’s visual organization functionality as well.

Google
After logging in to the TouchGraph Google browser, you input a search term just like you would on Google. The site queries Google, and returns the information in a visual format. The site returns what looks to be a mindmap layout of the search results with logos for each site and lines between the results form interconnecting webs. You can scroll through the world of your search results and the site moves and flows with the cursor. Your results are organized into clusters which you can color code and organize in any way you like.


Facebook
You can log in to the TouchGraph platform directly through Facebook, and I must say this may be my favorite use of this technology. Your friends and your friends’ photos are automatically imported into TouchGraph and they are organized by location. It is a really interesting way to see your friends, and to see relationships between your friends. You can adjust spacing, zoom in and out, and you can view photos from your friends on different networks. Interestingly, you can also see which of your friends have the most photos together.

Amazon
An Amazon search on TouchGraph returns results from the sites large assortment of books, music, and movies. Similar to the Google functionality above, but returns Amazon specific items. You can add genre tags, sort by artist, album, or label and you can see the prices of the material you are looking at.
More at:http://touchgraph.com

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