Searchme - A glimpse into the evolution of the Internet?

A new search engine has been launched within the last few weeks which I believe gives an insight into how the Internet is evolving.

Searchme is a search engine which provides a visual image of the website as a list of results. It’s kind of like the Iphone album menu - you can browse through a list of screenshots so you’re able to see the website before you click it. Check the video out on the website to see what it’s like.

Now I think this is a great example of how the Internet is evolving. It’s great to see a real-time representation of how communication and services are adapting and changing. I think Searchme is the beginning of a slow but sure change in how we visit websites, organise information and sort the web.

This has came shortly after the ‘Inventor of the Internet’ - Tim Berners-Lee - said that he believes search engines such as Google could become obsolete, after being superseded by services which make use of newer technology. Perhaps Searchme is an example of such a competitor?

I do believe this has come about more suddenly than I expected. The introduction of Searchme will mean Google and Yahoo are already being put under pressure to adapt and retain current levels of market share. They will have a while yet before Searchme gains momentum though.

I don’t think there is much of a concern for Google. The Internet has many examples of smaller past competitors which fail due to market share, finances and simply not being able to compete on levels of marketing and branding. It is possible but in the current industry situation I believe if the Searchme concept does catch on - Google will simply copy or adapt it to it’s own system. Unless of course there are patents involved, we’ll have to wait and see.

So what does this mean for all of the web entrepreneurs out there? The Internet could begin to utilise graphic and visual communication more strongly than ever before. Perhaps this is because the evolution of copy communication and web functionality has reached a level where it caters for the current needs of the standard Internet communities. Either way; if this kind of search engine concept catches on, we could see SEO involving aspects of graphical improvement as it becomes more important in the click through rate on search engines.

What are your thoughts?