Google might bring the same concept for Images too but in much better way. Image Swirl is a new Labs project of Google which out runs Google Image search now itself. Instead of displaying boring thumbnails, Swirl displays stacks of related images which when clicked starts the wonder wheel.

Like you can see in the image above, start by selecting any of the stack which will open up a wheel containing related images. Click again and you will see more. This will eventually lead  to one single image.

Comparing it with current Google Search its better. Not only you can find more images in less page views but relating to each other makes more sense to users. It gives them understanding of how the images are related and how they can search better.

Image Swirl is using both java script and flash. So make sure you don’t have them disabled. Also if you want to open up any image directly, juts hover your mouse over it and use the blue link that pops up there. Check out Image Swirl @ Google Labs and find more details on Official Google Blog

Image Swirl : Google’s Image search got Wonder Wheel by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on November 18, 2009, 5:54 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Behold is a custom image search engine which lets you search Flickr for only High Quality Images with options of images which are free to use, commercial or if they can be modified. This way you can narrow down images which are mere waste of bandwidth and waste of time.

Another option you get is to search for images which contains animals or cloud or garden etc. This is down by the way people tag the images on flickr even within it. Check out Behold

Behold : Find High Quality Flickr Images by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on October 12, 2009, 10:36 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

“The last few years Muslims have become very active on the Internet. The lack of tools for Muslims to be able to continue their online activities responsibly has inspired ImHalal.com to enter the search engine market. Our goal is to become the number one homepage in all Muslim households. Our main product will always remain search but we got ambitious plans to expand our product line by adding Islamic widgets to our homepage in the near future.

Please note that ImHalal.com is a tool designed for Muslims to be able to continue their online activities in a safe and clean environment. Using ImHalal.com will prevent you from “accidentally” bumping into explicit content but if you deliberately go looking for explicit content you might find what you are looking for after some while and that’s why we advise those people to use alternative search engines since ImHalal.com isn’t designed for those purposes.”

So, this indicates that, the Aim is – To provide a browsing environment which is safe from explicit content.

For example – I tried the search string ‘Porn’ and the snapshot of the result is as shown below, have a look.

It returned no results for ‘Porn’ and gave a message “Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 3 out of 3! I would like to advise you to change your search terms and try again.”

In my opinion, this is a great initiative, searching for something with an assurance that you won’t get any explicit stuff for the particular term is something really great, isn’t it? Moreover avoiding explicit content is something we all want to do irrespective of our Religion.

There is also an option to change the Background of the Search engine, as of now they have 4 different backgrounds, all the images are beautiful.

Give it a try, and share you experiences with us.

Try I’mHalal

A dedicated Search Engine for the Muslims: I’mHalal by Manav Mishra originally appeared on Technospot.Net on September 19, 2009, 11:44 pm. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Coming back to the title of the post, what I liked most was the Wikipedia search which displays result or suggestions as you type. Though it is not something new but I found this search very useful when it comes to Wikipedia. It takes you directly to the article instead of showing you 10 searches and then choose from it. What do you think ?

Wikipedia Search as you type in by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on September 18, 2009, 10:33 pm. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bing visual search

In order to access or enable Bing Visual Search you need to follow these steps:

• Go to Bing.com
• Click on the Country link which is available on Top Right.
• This will take you to list of Countries availble.
• Select English United States and save your preferences. ( Thanks to Nirmal For pointing out this )
• Then go to Bing Visual Search and it will work like a charm.

Bing visual preferences

How to access Bing Visual Search outside US by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on September 15, 2009, 11:40 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For filtering and making user browsing experience better it is categorized into Politics, Business, U.S., World, Sports, Sci/Tech, Entertainment, Health, Opinion, Travel,Recent, Most Viewed, Recommended, Headlines, National Review Online, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Center for Investigative etc.

All these sections are divided into panels which can be rearranged by moving up or down and if you are signed in the preferences will be retained. However I wasnt able to find to further customize it more using my account.

There is also mobile version of Fast Flip availble which lets you browse by using popular mobile phones like iPhone and Android only as of now.

Going ahead, Fast Flip is also armed with Voting button and sharing Email link. What I liked most about it was details of the author, site and in which group the news was posted is framed nicely. Read their complete FAQ here

Now my thought after seeing this was “Is this the new look of Google News ? ” Can we see more of this coming to searches after we did hear from some sources that Bing 2.0 is coming with Visual Search. What do you think about it ?

Google Fast Flip : Check out news even faster by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on September 15, 2009, 10:20 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The search settings allow you to set preferences for the following :

• Interface Language
• Search Language
• Safe Search Filter
• Number of results which can be more then 10. Pretty cool for people who hate paging but love scrolling.
• Option to open result window in new window
• Query Suggestions
• Option to use Search Wiki.

Allowing users to define Google search settings globally for themselves is really useful for many and users should get some notification about it from time to time.

Inside Google Search Settings by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on September 8, 2009, 10:56 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are lot you can do to find if a site is phishing and steer clear of money scams but here is another is service which helps you in finding scams, phishing and much more.

Created by Jason Morrison, a Googler working on the Search Quality team,  who wrote on steer clear of money scams has created a custom search engine called as Is this a scam.

In his own words,

This particular search engine works well because I combed the web looking for high-quality sources of information about scams, fraud, snake oil, and consumer protection. The list well over 100 sites, including forums, blogs, news media, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.

I could not find if he did disclose the list of  those 100 webs sites but would have loved to see it.

This makes it much more realiable and a Scam Checker before you plan to pay off money on any site which could be new for you. He says next time your uncle wants to sign off a check, just ask him to look into this.

Jason Morrison’s Is this is a scam ? by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on August 21, 2009, 1:33 pm. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you raising your eyebrows thinking what changes has been made, you need read out Matt Cutts Caffeine Update and as a summary there isno changes in look and feel but you would see changes in way results appear now.

I would suggest you to try out with your regular queries and see if you really think the result is correct. If you don’t you can very well submit a feedback with complete details by using the  Dissatisfied – help us Improve link available at the bottom of the page.

For example when I searched my name on new google search, it pushed my twitter profile above my profile which is on this blog. Now imagine if somebody did come to my profile page on twitter he might just not be interested in my tweets. Doesn’t make sense. Too much of Real time ?

In my experience, order of pages have changed a little and I am seeing more of real time data also, but don’t take my words just try the Sandbox here

Caffeine for you!! by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on August 12, 2009, 6:07 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

An interesting pdf report by McAfee recently, which was posted by Ghacks,  showed  are some of the terms that has become more dangerous than just searching for sex is.

Most dangerous search keywords

If you give it a thought this is not surprising.

Internet has changed from just being used from emails and search. Now people think of making money online and make applications turn into a demanding industry like Twitter. Opportunities have increased and people have become more aware of other things to do on Internet than just searching for sex.

So if the industry did make a shift towards different area so did the Spam and the Scam industry.  Its not surprising to receive an email saying New way to make money online than just a Nigerian Lottery Scam.

Once you read the report you will become more aware how different category like screen saver, make money online etc are now topping as most dangerous searched keywords.

So what do we do in this changing scenario ?

We should get smart both when we make a search and when we visit a site. There are always signs on a website which can tell you if its a scam or a phishing site.

So instead of just getting listed by seeing a flashy icon or free downloads you should also analyze other sections. See if the site intentions look right. You can think of even asking your knowledgeable friends who can give you tips on this.

Options are many and we need be more careful and educate yourself more. That’s the only way out to be safe from any scam, spam and phishing sites.

Happy Searching!!

You thought Only Sex was Dangerous by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on June 10, 2009, 9:12 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.