The web is the perfect medium for information retrieval and discovery. You can find a video about skiing in the Swiss Alps and then moments later read the latest review of a new book by Stephen King called Duma Key. Everyone that has used the web has most likely used a search engine such as Google. When using a search engine, you type in your query, view a list of pages that contain relevant information, then choose one which might provide the most relevant information for your needs. Oftentimes the page chosen is not exactly what you were looking for. So, we click the back button, look at the set of pages again, and choose another. It is in between clicking the back button and choosing another page that we have chosen to focus our core business.
When web browsers first introduced the integrated search box (whether through a toolbar or built directly into the browser) everyone rejoiced as their information retrieval process had just gotten a bit easier. No longer would we need to type www.myfavoriteengine.com, and then type our query. Now we can instantly jump to a search results page. This has become one of the most popular ways of using a search engine. But do we need to always look at a ‘search results page’? We think there’s still room for improvement.
Imagine you are reading that book review about Stephen King’s latest book Duma Key that I mentioned above. Somewhere in the second paragraph of that review, they mention “The Dark Tower”, another book by King. If you wanted to find some web pages about The Dark Tower, you would put that in the search box, hit enter, and look at a page worth of search results. You are no longer reading the review on Duma Key. Your attention has now shifted over to the new search results page. Either you opened a new tab/window to keep your place on the Duma Key review, or the search results have replaced the Duma Key review in the same tab/window. Maybe you want to look at The Dark Tower search results later and finish the Duma Key review, so you click back into the review. This whole process requires more ‘clicks’ than is truly necessary.
KwiClick attempts to solve some of these workflow pain points by presenting search results without the need to view a new page. The search result set is organized within an intuitive panel that can be moved, enlarged, docked to the side of your screen, or hidden when not in use. There are two main goals: remove unnecessary steps to retrieve search results, and help you stay focused on the task at hand.
Let’s think about skiing down the Swiss Alps one more time. When you are at the top of a fairly easy trail, there isn’t much getting in your way on the path towards the bottom. Let’s call this the ‘path of least resistance’. Now imagine you are at the top of a double black diamond trail. You look down and you see numerous moguls and trees. You’ll need to pass through a number of obstacles before you can get to the bottom of this trail. This is, obviously, not the path of least resistance. Searching on the web is not that different from the scenario described above. There are easy ways of accomplishing tasks, and then there are hard ways of accomplishing that same task. KwiClick flattens out some of those moguls to make your path a little less bumpy.
Over the next few months we will be releasing a set of tools built into KwiClick that flattens out more and more of these moguls to help you accomplish your tasks easier than before. Stay tuned, as we’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg.