Sausalito start-up Groxis is expected to release today a new search tool that categorizes search results in a more visually friendly way and could find fans among frustrated librarians, research junkies, students and others looking for hard-to-find information.

Co-founder Paul Hawken says the limitations of searching with Google and other search engines sparked the idea.

Google, for example, judges relevance based partly on number of links pointing to a Web site, with more links implying more popularity.

But in a search for a biography, that method could lead to an out-of-date version appearing high on the list of results. A newer version could be buried within some 20,000 results, most of which wouldn't even be provided.

Groxis organizes those 20,000 results into 10 or so subcategories more helpful to researchers. Groxis' product is called Grokker 2.

For example, a search for Paris gives you a single page, with several categories titled ``History,'' ``Museums,'' ``Universities'' and ``Hotels.'' Click on ``History'' and you'll find several categories, one of which is called ``Tours.'' That, in turn lists all the historical tours of Paris. You can then drill down to the specific Web site of the tour you're interested in.

Or type in ``Java,'' and you are presented with two big categories, one related to the Java language, the other with coffee. You click on the one you want, which filters out the other.

Analysts said it is too early to tell whether Groxis will catch on.

Whit Andrews, a search technology analyst at Gartner, said there's been no shortage of new search start-ups, and that Groxis looks ``as appealing'' as any. Groxis, he says, is trying to tackle an idea -- better visualization of information -- that could have a strong market: ``People desperately want another way to find stuff,'' he said.

Groxis searches information by accessing the results provided by several search engines, including Yahoo, MSN, Alta Vista, Fast, Teoma and WiseNut. An agreement with Google is due within a couple of weeks, the company said. It also searches a computer user's desktop files, and provides access to results from sites like Amazon.com and other databases through ``plug-ins.'' It costs $49, though plug-ins might cost extra. There's a free trial period of 30 days.