In my earlier post “Beta testing SLIKK” I described how I requested an invitation to Beta test SLIKK – a site that was offering a new way of searching.
Well after about a week, I got my invitation, and sat down to give SLIKK a test drive.
Here are my findings…
SLIKK Search Application
The SLIKK Search application is a Search Interface that aims to provide the “new” way of searching.
SLIKK Features
On the surface, SLIKK looks like a great tool. Its features include:
SEARCH ENGINE
SLIKK can be configured to return search results from either Google, Yahoo/Bing, or SLIKK’s own results. Google Results are selected by default.
CONTENT TYPE
SLIKK provides search results based on source material:
- Web
- Images
- News
- Video
- Blogs
- Twitter
MULTI-VIEW
With Multi-view, a spilt screen can be displayed to show you two different groups of results. (For example – “Web” search results on the left, and “Video” search results on the right.)
OPEN SEARCH RESULTS
SLIKK offers the ability to open the source page, that the search result is pointing to, in a small “child” window. This is not a preview, but the actual page. Further to that you can open multiple ” source pages” and have these open either in a series of tabs or “tiled. Then you have the choice of changing it to full screen, etc.
MY LINKS
You can select from a selection of sites (Google Maps, Twitter, etc) or you can enter your own, so that these appear in the top of the SLIKK page.
What I thought of SLIKK
At first glance SLIKK appears to be a great application.
However, when I looked closer at each feature, I started to think “ok…but what is the real advantage that is offered here?”
Search Engine – You can select the search engine that you want the search results from. Really – I can easily do the same by going to the Google site and executing a search there, or going to the Bing search and executing the search there.
Content Type – This is nothing that the “legacy” search engines didn’t already offer. However – to be able to get Twitter results was definitely something I was happy with.
Multi-View – Initially I thought that this was pretty cool. But , to be honest, there wasn’t really that much advantage to this feature. The only value I saw was if you wanted to see, side-by-side, search results for something while viewing what was being tweeted about it the same time. But then…how often do you want to do that?
Open Search Results – Note – this is not a “preview” feature similar to what Google offers. It is a “child window” with the source site in it. In these times of tabbed browsers, I wa struggling to find a real advantage to this.
My Links – When I first clicked on this (and saw the screen displayed above), I thought that it would offer real value. But all it does is display the name of the site in the top of the screen which, when clicked on, will open the site in a new tab, or window. In short – bookmarks/favorites.
Overall…
I found that SLIKK was not actually that Slick. I certainly applaud the owners of SLIKK for what they are doing, but I feel that the big Search Engines are already able to offer so much more.
Beta Community
SLIKK have a Beta program in place. And there is a forum, and a blog (as well as a Facebook page etc). They do seem quite receptive to input from users and appear to be trying hard to create something that people want.
I wish them the best of luck.
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Beta Testing SLIKK
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Search the way you like it, with Slikk
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New Search Engine Slikk.com Launches at DEMO Spring 2012
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Search and browse simultaneously with Slikk
