Grokker, a new type of web search engine

Some time ago, I read about Grokker, a new type of web search engine that presents results visually in cluster maps (think something like Venn diagrams), rather than in a long series of search results to page through one by one. Put in simple terms, the idea behind Grokker is to enable the searcher to more readily find the desired information that might be buried in web pages on the umpteenth page of search results from a standard search engine. More recently, I downloaded a free 30-day trial version for Mac OS X (they also offer a Windows version) and used it to find relevant information on a particular topic in Google that I was struggling to find using the regular Google interface. I am quite impressed with it, although I am not sure yet whether or not I want to fork over the $49 they charge for a production version of the software. If you want to see the future of search engines, or at least one model for that future, I suggest you download a copy yourself and play around with it. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I think you’ll like it.