Visual search engine results - a small piece of a consumer revolution

I was shown a new search engine today called SearchMe.com, which is currently showing a beta version of a visual engine.

When you perform a search it produces SERPs in the style of Cover Flow that appears in iTunes.

I find this particularly interesting as I strongly believe that search will become a more visual and richer experience than it is today. For instance, I wrote recently about how Microsoft PhotoSynth is adding a new element to visual interaction by making use of the content stored in social networks such as Flickr.

There are multiple reports that show users' typical behaviour on search engines is often a multiple click strategy. This means that if the first result is not what they were looking for they click back and choose a second option.

What SearchMe does is to overcome some of these problems - you may not be able to read all the text but you get a very good idea as to whether that site will be able to serve your needs.

Would this change 'site optimisation' or NSO? Yes, I think it would. Suddenly pages would have to be designed to be concise and clear and the most important information shown more prominently so it could be scan read quickly by the user in a visual search listing. And isn't that better for the user?

I like to challenge the team to consider possible outcomes that may seem radical and unbelievable. To consider that something like SearchMe could overthrow Google by offering better results is hard to imagine because of the behemoth that Google is, but then again, wasn't Yahoo! in a similar position some years back?

We are in a media revolution that is being led by the consumer. The consumer doesn't care about the commercial power of Google Inc, they only care about getting the best possible experience.