searchcube is a graphical search engine that presents search results in a compact, visual format. It searches
the World Wide Web for websites, videos and images and displays previews of each result on a unique, three-dimensional cube.
Once your search results appear, you can use the arrow keys, the SHIFT key and the mouse to interact with your searchcube.
Mouse over the images and get a visual preview of the site. I have a lot of fun with the results of my search on information literacy. I don’t think we are looking at a tool to drill for in depth information here – but I can see a very good discussion around research, information literacy and more using this tool with kids.
Problem? images included in the search make it a bit more complex to identify the source than traditional image searching (what has happened to the world when a Google image search can be described as ‘traditional’). Advanced searching ? no! But then I suspect this is just a new niche, not a replacement for other tools.
There has to be something fun I can use this for as well as a teaching tool! What do you think?
how to use this search cube.
Used this search engine along with searchme and taggalaxy with a group of Design and Technology students who were exploring ideas for their major projects. It was a very interesting lesson as the teacher and I watched the students exploring their ideas with this visual interface. They have attractive and and very alternative interfaces to Google and the class really liked using them. Comments included “that was really fun” “never knew you could search like this” “the images can be so much better manipulated and viewed”
I tried the same lesson with a Wood Technics class the next day with the same results. Would also think art classes would benefit from being exposed to these alternative ways of locating and viewing images.
This is a bit of fun and I too could see it as a great way to show off image results for a given topic. In fact I liked using it for images better than information sites. Could be a great inspirational tool for creative pursuits like writing or art.
A really interesting search engine, I have been exploring some as well but this is one of the better I have seen. I believe students need to value different strategies of searching beyond ‘traditional’ web methods. I would probably use if for exploring visual language and symbolism which is so important in our digital world. What about for an art class introduction? Type in ‘Picasso’ and see the result. It could be a great way to engage a topic, and it could provoke amazing oral discussion around an idea or concept.
Given its shape and rotational ability it would also be great as a maths learning object.