Kartoo takes the usual search results and makes them visual. Items appear as documents and are illustrated in a way that can show relationships between results. From a user interface perspective, Kartoo is a nice experiment. Kartoo is a meta search engine that uses the FlashPlayer to illustrate results. Click to zoom.
Kartoo does a nice job of retaining previous searches in its Flash format. That makes it easier to see previous searches.
Sponsor results are prominent in the bottom left part of the screen. But they are formatted in a way that’s not overbearing.
Mousing over a result gets you a preview in the left pane. Mousing over the result icon shows you how the terms connect in a Yahoo Pipes-ish format.
Kartoo provides an interesting interface at the top level results. To burrow in on an image and video search you’re bounced out to Yahoo’s search. The difference in user interface is jarring. Why not surface these results in the same format as Kartoo’s top level search?
Any map churned out by Kartoo can be saved for future reference. If you click on save you get a properties box.
Each icon in a search result has a meaning. This screen is an overview of what the icons represent.
Navigation is done via Maps. The one rub: The navigation pane resides at the bottom right part of the screen. I conducted several searches without even noticing it.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief at Celonis. He was most recently Vice President, Editorial and Editor in Chief at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, and The New York Times. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.
