Google is by far the most used search engine. The biggest drawback is that it is text-based. Enter Viewzi, ([1] www.viewzi.com), a new type of search site that offers results as visual images. The company is hoping to radically change how people find information on the Web.

Viewzi draws its flexibility from its “views,” each of which is essentially a customized search aggregator. After entering a search term, Viewzi tries to figure out what you’re looking for, and presents the results in an appropriate view. At launch there are 16 views, including MP3 Search View, Celebrity Photo View, Video View, Album View, 3D Photo Cloud, and the curious Weather View. Each view draws results from different sources, ranging from Flickr to Amazon to Weather.com.

These views help you focus your search on sites that are most relevant. If you enter a search for a song title, you will get the MP3 search view, which lists links to the song. One of the benefits of this search engine is that results are displayed visually. And the Web Screenshot View thumbnail images of relevant Web sites are displayed. You simply flip through the results provided and click on the image to go to the actual Web site.

In practice, Viewzi does a pretty good job at determining which view corresponds to a search term, though it isn’t perfect. The biggest problem is that many of the views are pure eye candy, offering little in the way of useful information.