8 Ways to Sunday

This past Saturday, my friend Mickey turned twenty-nine years old. Happy belated birthday!

The Grokker visual search tool, formerly available only as a $50 desktop application, now has a free, web-accessible version.

Grokker presents search engine results as a clickable “map” of information, separated by topic area. The web version uses results from Yahoo, whereas the desktop version (still available for a price) can be configured to use a number of different search engines. The results you get from either version look something like this:

If you’re having trouble thinking of a working example, check out this Grokker search for “8 Ways to Sunday.”

I did a trial of the desktop product a couple of months back, so Groxis (the company behind Grokker) sent me an e-mail when the web site went live. I gave it a spin this morning, and it’s very similar to the desktop app. I don’t see myself using it very often, but it’s nice to know it’s there. I use search frequently in my job, so new tools are always a plus.

To use the web version of Grokker, you’ll need Sun’s Java plug-in and a browser that supports inline frames.