Yayyyyy The new Kosmix is launched!!
December 9th, 2008 | by Ridhima Suri |Welcome to the world of Kosmix
My husband works at Kosmix in Mountain View. I have been trying out searches on the website for quite some time. And they launched a new beta today. I am writing this post to share my candid opinion on the search experience on www. kosmix.com
First I would like to discuss my current internet searching habits and then I will tell you how my searches have become more successful on Kosmix. This will be followed by a ‘stars’, ‘wishes’ and ‘overall comments’ section. I have also listed some of my favorite search results. Let me begin.
My current searching habit: How do I search now?
If I need some information I go to google. I search on yahoo. I go to yahoo answers. I also search on youtube. I go to wikipedia.com. I go to TechCrunch. And that means I go to a lot of sites and my broswer has several tabs open at any given point of time!
My future searching habit : How will I search on www.kosmix.com?
When I search something in the ‘explore’ box I get a page full of a wealth of information from all of my favourite sites mentioned above and many more. I move back and forth between pages. I like the ‘Related in Kosmos’ section which actually gives me new ideas about my own question. I save so much time, effort, and money (cause I think my time is like ‘money..;)) by getting all the results on one page. It has certainly changed my internet browsing habits and hence I thought of spreading the love via this post.
While on Kosmix my eyeball movements have changed from ‘top-down’ to ‘left-right-top-bottom’ as I scan the information I need and the information I can skip. But the search page is so ‘sticky’ and ‘addictive’ that I keep looking around for more and more information. And Kosmix never gives up.
I have tested Kosmix and thought of posting more qualified personal feedback.
[STARS]
- I like the one stop search experience. Saves my time and energy. I get so many new ideas by looking at the “Related in Kosmos” (look on the right side of the page).
- I simply love the organization of the page.
- I also enjoy the pictures, most were very relevant and add oomph to a rather dull search result.
- I like the different strategies used to get my attention about the relevant aspects of my query.
- Each page is unique and has many walk away thoughts.
- I love to get the ‘unexpected’- tools, links, widgets, maps, shopping spots, discussion threads, news. It widens my search scope.
-I love the landing page. I like to read about news before getting started with punching in search questions.
- Even though there is a lot of information surprisingly I was not overwhelmed. The information is in digestible chunks. I can read about a book, learn about the author and learn what others are saying on various social networks and answer sites.
[WISHES]
- It would have been nice to see the ‘about us’ page in the front. I particularly like a video about the website which is very well done but largely understated. People must know what you are doing!
- I am used to using www.kosmix.com. I know what works and how to move but I am concerned for new users. There should be a ‘how to’ or a tutorial to use the website. Most people search the way I do. They have several browser panes for one tiny bit of information returning millions of unwanted search results. It is important to tell them how a search on kosmix.com works.
- I do not know how to get to the home page where they show the news. Maybe I will figure it out by the time I hit the ‘post it’ button here!
- I somehow missed the ‘see all categories’ link in ‘Related in Kosmos’. It is a bit understated but is certainly a wow factor in many searches!
[OVERALL]
I love the search experience and I save a lot of time. I have searched several research intensive topics and have actually got answers quickly! Those are my candid opinions.. do with them as you wish. I am hoping to reduce my goooogling habit a bit. I understand that it is easy to criticize and hard to actually say something good! If you could look into the [WISHES] a little more it would be greatly appreciated. At the very least I would love to see a tutorial for my friends. 6 stars and way to go!!!!!!!!!!
[MY FAVORITE SEARCH RESULTS]
These are some of my favorite search results.
1. I typed PUMPKIN PIE and got this result page: http://www.kosmix.com/topic/Pumpkin_pie
This is a very pretty page. It almost looks like a ‘ buy one get three’ offer!!! Not only did I learn how to make a pumkin pie by reading the recipee and videos and but also read about blueberry pie and strawberry pie when I looked on the right side of the page under “Related in Kosmos”. I was not looking for these recipes to start with.
2. I searched ‘Game Theory’ and got this result : http://www.kosmix.com/topic/game_theory
I just had working knowledge about Game Theory but I went away from the site by learning much more than I had expected. I loved the categorization on the right side of the page..just made my job so much easier!!!!
3. I searched “Barack Obama” and got this result page: http://www.kosmix.com/topic/barack_obama
It is a very well presented and crisp page. No information overload and I liked the amazon.com link. I will most certainly buy a book on Obama here!
4. I searched “New Delhi” and got this result page: http://www.kosmix.com/topic/New_Delhi
I like the ‘history of New Delhi’ link and the map in the centre of the page. Very useful information.
5. I searched for “Reliance” and the auto suggestion posted many relevant results. I selected “Reliance Industries” and got a nice page on http://www.kosmix.com/topic/Reliance_Industries
6. My grandmother has ‘diabetes’. I searched for ‘Diabetes’ and got the following result : http://www.kosmix.com/topic/diabetes
Once again quite informative.
The last word
I will post some of my other favourites later. I am not as good as Kosmix that I can manage so much information in a single blog post (in a neat and well presented manner). There is a lot of relevant information to play with. All said and done I am saving many relentless hours spent othrwise on boring searches. Overall I like my search experience on www.kosmix.com….:-) I hope you can try the website as well. And yes my husband and his friends at Kosmix are waiting for your feedback so do not miss the feedback button!
Happy exploring!
Tags: 20 billion, good search engine, Great Sites, kosmix, search engine, Time Warner
One Response to “Yayyyyy The new Kosmix is launched!!”
By RoJo on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
Kudos to Kosmix for landing $20M in funding and for trying to change the face of search,
But you should check out NeXplore (www.NeXplore.com), another search engine working mightily to change the face of search.
With approx 4M unique visitors/month, NeXplore is faring far better than Kosmix, Cuil, Mahalo, Searchme, CoolIris, etc.
Don’t take my word for it. Check out NeXplore vs others on Compete.com