Groxis Search Moves To Web

Online version will mimic desktop edition with access to six search engines and the ability to organize files in a PC's hard drive into visual clusters

By Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb, InformationWeek
May 16, 2005
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163101948

Groxis Inc. has taken its desktop software for graphically displaying search results on the Web, hoping to expand its use and cash in on the growing market for paid-search advertising.

For the last couple of years, the Grokker application has been available only for the desktop. Now the "search visualization" product is available as a Web service powered by Yahoo Inc.'s search engine.

Grokker displays category and subcategory results in a visual way.

Grokker displays category and subcategory results in a visual way.

Rather than display search results in text lists, Grokker divides results into categories that are displayed as circles containing subcategories in smaller circles or squares. Clicking on any circle or square expands the shape to show its contents. For example, typing in "nanotechnology" will display a visual cluster for each of several categories, including molecular manufacturing, national nanotechnology, industrial revolution, and science and technology.

Passing a mouse cursor over geometric shapes representing a link will show a balloon that gives a summary of the link's contents. The ability to preview content before going to a Web page means users can find what they want first, according to the company.

Groxis has labeled its Web product a "demo" to indicate that the service is still under development. "We want to make sure we set people's expectations that this isn't all there is to Grokker," says R.J. Pittman, chief executive and founder of Groxis.

The company plans to move to the Web many of the desktop-application features, which include access to six search engines and online retailer Amazon.com Inc., and the ability to organize files in a PC's hard drive into visual clusters. What hasn't been decided is whether Groxis eventually will adopt a Web-only strategy, offering a version of the service at no charge and another on a subscription basis. In the meantime, the company intends to continue to provide full support for the desktop product, for which it claims a million downloads.

One revenue source the company already has tapped into is paid search. Listed on the right side of Grokker clusters are sponsored links from Yahoo, which can change as a person drills down into subcategories. For example, clicking on the "tickets" subcategory in a search for the rock band U2 delivers a list of sponsored links where concert tickets are available. Tying ads to categories and subcategories increases the chance of people clicking on the sponsored links by 50%, when compared with the average for the search industry, Pittman says.

So-called contextual search is the "way to go in consumer cyberspace," says Susan Feldman, an analyst for IDC. "What [Groxis] is offering is targeted advertising, and the more targeted the ad, the more successful it is."

Moving Grokker to the Web is also expected to build wider brand recognition. "The problem is an IT department is unlikely to put anything on the desktop unless there's a huge demand," Feldman says. "When you move a promising application to the Web, then there are lots of people willingly to look at it. Anybody can use it without jeopardizing any of the files on their desktop or servers."

Groxis also hopes to move into social networking with Grokker by making it easy for people to organize searches into customized clusters that can be stored on the company's server and shared. In addition, the company wants people to post links to their clusters on Web pages and blogs.

The company has some collaboration features today. Grokker results can be E-mailed, and people can build their own clusters, which can be stored on Groxis' server for 14 days before they're permanently deleted from the company's system.

Groxis expects to launch a major upgrade of the Web product by early fall.