About Chris Mitchell and Search UI.

This is a site dedicated to the exploration of new interfaces for web search. Improvements to the traditional search interface are now being seen all the time, and many organizations are experimenting with next-generation interfaces which will barely resemble the standard query box/results page interface. These advances will alter (and hopefully improve) the way we discover information.

Search UI is my third venture in the realm of cutting edge search review and commentary. I am proud to have introduced thousands of people to search resources they may not have tried otherwise. I have been privileged to play a small part in the popularization of up and coming search properties (perhaps most notably, I was the first person to mention Google on Usenet).

The Searcher's Road Less Travelled was an alphabetized list, on a single page, of search engines with fewer than 1000 inbound links (per Infoseek -- the best source of that information at the time). The site was essentially about getting users to try new search engines.

Smartborg was a site which took a search query, and based on query length and content, recommended a search engine to use. Both Google and Yahoo now make extensive use of query parsing (i.e. Google displays a miniature map when you type in a city/state string). Smartborg was also about getting users to try new search engines.

While I hope my latest effort will serve as a resource for search professionals, Search UI keeps the focus on encouraging users to try new search engines AND exposes users to new interfaces offered by old favorites.

Sincerely,

Chris Mitchell

please send comments and suggestions to lensman00 [at] go.com

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