Visual search engine Searchme has launched its music search-and-share feature that allows users to listen to unlimited streaming audio tracks through embeddable widgets from social music service Imeem. Users also can share search results with others through social networks.
“We integrated Imeem’s player into our search delivery system,” said Randy Adams, CEO of Searchme. “We’re all about being able to offer one place to find videos, Web pages and images so adding music was a natural extension.”
When a user clicks on the “music” link on Searchme’s homepage and types in an artist, album or song, results will come up in a horizontal “stack” form. Users can browse through these tracks and drag individual elements to create their own personalized stacks, which can include audio tracks, videos, images and Web results. Then, users can e-mail stacks to friends or embed them to sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and blogs.
Adams said Searchme is different from other search engines in that users can see full page results and “flip through results like a magazine,” as opposed to just seeing a small text result that leads away from the search result page.
“Not many companies are taking advantage of users’ broadband connections,” he said, explaining that if a link leads you away from search results, going back and forth can be time consuming.
In the next 60 days, Searchme plans to roll out branded advertising. For example, if a user is searching for athletic shoes, the third image in the stack might be a full page Nike branded advertisement.
“Search is the best way to reach your consumer directly based on their queries,” Adams said. “Other major search engines don’t enable branded advertisements.”
