Groxis, Inc., the pioneering search visualization company, today announced the launch of Grokker.com the first Web-based version of Groxis’s award-winning "search and research" software tool. Powered by Yahoo!, the site gives users with a new way to search the internet and to manage search results, and provides sponsored search listings from Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions (formerly Overture). The site went live this morning at https://www.grokker.com/.
"Visual search has been on the horizon for quite some time," said R.J. Pittman, CEO and Founder of Groxis. "The great thing about Grokker.com is that now the public can experience and understand the advantages of visual search without have to buy or download anything. Grokker.com eliminates the friction so anyone can try this new technology. The new site will raise the awareness of visual search in the marketplace as we roll out a new suite of products in the next year."
Over the past two years, the Grokker desktop product has gained wide adoption, with more than one million downloads, and with increasing acceptance in the enterprise and education markets. Success in these markets pointed to an even larger opportunity to serve consumers that use the Web for search and research — researchers, journalists, students, marketers, comparison shoppers, bloggers, and others.
"I can’t imagine using the Web without it," said Dr. David Thornburg, founder and Director of Global Operations for the Thornburg Center and a leader in the education community. "Grokker gives you a single summary view of an entire search space, providing a breakdown of automatically generated categories for search results that lets you find the needles in the haystack in a fraction of the time it takes with a pure-textual representation of search results."
"More than 3,000 Stanford faculty and students have used Grokker over the past nine months, and it has gotten rave reviews," said Michael Keller, the Ida M. Green University Librarian and Director of Academic Information Resources. "And it’s a significant advance over the conventional, text-based lists of hits. Navigating the visual clusters in Grokker maps is simple and intuitive, enabling users to quickly separate the wheat from the chaff, and find what matters to them."
The Grokker technology is unique for its patented visual mapping format that organizes search results by topic, making retrieving, exploring, understanding, and utilizing search results far easier than the current standard of "ranked" results lists. Each link in a Grokker results map includes a preview balloon that gives the user a summary of the link’s contents. Grokker’s one-click GrokMail feature allows users to easily save and share results maps with anyone. The maps can be edited and customized by any user in the email chain, adding more value to results, and enhancing each user’s grasp of the map’s subject matter.
Grokker.com also represents a breakthrough in contextual and targeted advertising with its smart-ad serving tool. With sponsored search listings from Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions, Grokker.com is testing the use of highly targeted advertising directly correlated to specific topics within a Grokker map. Grokker’s patented visual interface adds value for both the advertiser and the end user by delivering ads that are precisely targeted to the user’s demonstrated interests.
About Groxis
Groxis is a pioneer in visual information software technology and the creator of the first breed of Graphical Information Interface (GII) software called Grokker™. The Grokker software makes information research easy, intuitive, and sensible. One software platform for every person, profession, and pursuit. Grokker information maps are an innovative information currency that radically improves the way people, groups, and organizations discover, organize, and convey large amounts of information. A privately held company backed by leading venture investors, Groxis is based in San Francisco’s financial district.
This article was last modified on January 8, 2023
This article was first published on May 16, 2005
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