Dear Google, after finding this new search tool, I have found you to be boring. You may have more results, more money, fancy offices with armed security and jars of jelly beans, lots of media attention and the ability to run most everything in our lives, but you’re just not as shiny and sexy.
I recently discovered SearchMe.com and for my basic searches, I will be using their services over yours. Also, I don’t have to deal with ugly ads, irrelevant search results or a snooty attitude. SearchMe.com is super fast, very very very aesthetically pleasing and it feels like using the iPhone but with a mouse. Here’s an image tour of the search I just performed about the most important topic ever… me:
According to Searchme.com, “Searchme lets you see what you’re searching for. As you start typing, categories appear that relate to your query. Choose a category, and you’ll see pictures of web pages that answer your search. You can review these pages quickly to find just the information you’re looking for, before you click through.“
Why This is Urgently Important
Enough silly talk, this actually is really important. Think about this: we’ve talked before about the importance of aesthetics on your site not only for reader retention but for RSS marketing. Also, we’ve talked about Trulia’s new visuals-first-info-last Snapshots search option. Put all these past articles together and you see a theme emerging- the searching environment is changing and user preferences are being taken into account. IF this is the wave of the future (forgive my cliche, but it totally applies), then aesthetics are crucial.
Will You Get Clicked??
With a visual search, there is a big difference between being found and being clicked. SEO is what will get your site found but being visually appealing is what might get you clicked (if people can move past the fun of flicking through screenshots of websites). Take a minute and think about how your website stacks up against others- would you click through on a thumbnail of your site? Is your blog formatted to be visually stimulating or do you have a wall of words? Are your single property websites up to par or are they templated and won’t stand out against others like it? I predict that this time next year, we will be focused on more than SEO to get our sites discovered, we’ll also be focused on what we’ve decided to call Visual Site Optimization (VSO).
