IceRocket.com new meta search engine!

[BlakeR]

I have created IceRocket.com (http://www.icerocket.com) a new meta search engine. We are located in Dallas, TX. We are still in a beta stage and are seeking opinions, suggestions, and any kind of relevant feedback. Feel free to e-mail us through the site if you wish to express yourself. Searchenginewatch.com is a great site, I love checking it out daily, keep uo the good work.

[stoner3221]

Works well and looks good. The picture search page is a bit wide and requires scrolling site to side however.

Best of luck to you!!

[jamescamp]

Good luck to you

[doppelganger]

Looks great... I particularly like the rocket at the bottom of the results page that has the pages listed in it.

One suggestion... you may want to add some type of adult filtering to the functionality. I did a search for "nokia" and got some adult images.

Also, my preference would be to keep the results snapshots "on" by default. The thumbnails are great, and don't seem to add that much weight to loading time.

And go get yourself some AdSense ads... or build your own system.

Just out of curiosity... What is it that makes this search engine different from the rest?

[Alavina]

Another meta search? Looks fine (like most), but will make your search stand out from the crowd? I think if you want to get successful, you'll need something to stand out from the crowd....

[steve sardell]

It is an attracive site and seems to function well. But with many metas it becomes a situation of getting known. I am sure your company has addressed the proverbial "who is your target market and how do you plan on reaching it" But I am curious, how do you plan on setting yourselves apart, and what will set you apart from the others.

[BlakeR]

i really appreciate you all who took the time to respond. We have a lot of cool things in the works, that will make searching the web a lot more fun and a lot easier. To answer a few questions:

We are different in many ways. You won't see our site stay the sime for too long. A lot of meta search engines seem to never update their sites, they can stay the same for years, we will advance with the times and better our site constantly. We have several features that will be rolled out over the next month or so that are very unique, and differnt from other sites. Our goal is to help users find the best sites to visit for their paticular situation. If anyone has any other suggestions or comments, you are more than welcome to e-mail me or call, my contact info is on the site.

Blake

[wiseMouse]

As a searcher my primary concern is relevant results. How you do that, I don't care. If I want info on the latest Nitendo console, I just want that, anything else distracts. This includes many gadgets search engines choose to be different. Stand out by being (a) relevant, and (b) easy to use, very easy...

[doppelganger]

This is a Mark Cuban backed project...

http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1511731206339485/

[bigshark]

I read bout your site a couple weeks ago and was impressed. The thing that struck me first was the similarity to Google. I am not sure if there is a SE template out there that looks like Google and people just do not bother to modify or if it is just that SE designers are afraid to try something different?

I think you need to set your site apart by rethinking the organization of information. However, do not do it simply for design’s sake, make sure it is still as usable as Google.

The column of related searches kind of invades the results' space. Perhaps it would look better if it stayed in its own column and was not inset into the results column. The example I found this was for 'web design'.

There are a few design criteria that SEs should always work towards:

1. Do not make the user think! Provide them with a site that simply lets them type in what ever it is on their mind and search for results. No fluff and no gimmicks.

Your site does this fairly well but when I typed "web design" in quotations, it appeared that the engine just ignored them. I think you should rethink forcing the user to click on the Exact Phrase search box as using quotations is an acceptable norm for most search engines.

2. Do not keep changing the overall layout of the site as you suggested you might. Remember a SE is a tool, It is not user friendly when the user has to keep relearning how to use a tool every time they use it.

3. Design around an overall theme and stick to it. Make it memorable. Your site has the rocket theme going on so stick to it yet do not over use it. So far your site is doing OK in that respect. I think the rocket at the bottom of the page needs a bit more work: The red text on the blue bg is a bit much, also the numbers might be a bit too close for older users.

Also, I question the logo on the results page, why is the rocket crashing and exploding? This does not make me think of successful search results, rather, more like 'crash-and-burn' result! Just a thought but these kinds of cognitive associations are important and need to be considered.

The results numbers need to be separated out with commas: 39398058 is a lot of numbers to not organize properly.

Hope this helps, it is always easier to critique than create! :D

[critter]

BLAKE?

Are you Mark Cuban?

Doesn't he own icerocket.com?

CRITTER