Based on user feedback from more than 7,000 service registrations over the past two years, we improved web-site crawling and indexing, added new search display options and improved service user interface.

Being one of the major visual search engines, Quintura indexes a web-site and builds a search cloud of keywords and phrases related to the site.

The cloud is displayed as graphical user interface for searching and can be embedded to the site as a search widget.

See the widget in the left sidebar and create one at http://affiliates.quintura.com

One new option is that a publisher of several web-sites can create and manage site search for all its web-sites using single user account.

The holidays celebrated in Russia such as New Year, International Women’s Day, Valentine’s Day and the others made 9 out of top 20 searches in Russia last year. The Yandex top searches (Zeitgeist Russia) and their respective numbers in 2009 were as follows:

PCWorld.com

Here is an explanation why Rick turned to Quintura:

“Because I can’t monitor my kids’ computer activity every second of the day, I’m starting by replacing Google with Quintura. This kid-friendly search engine lets you type in a query and/or click your way through a word cloud and get G-rated results in return.”

Since 2007, the teachers and librarians of more than 1,000 elementary schools in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand have been using Quintura for Kids, a kids-friendly search engine developed and operated by Quintura.

Here are screen shots of search for “Apple + iPhone” on Quintura.com and Google.com.

To join the conversation, go to the Twitter search for “Quintura” or leave your comments here on this blog.

Will this be the end of the visual search engines or just the beginning?

The Forum, which is organized by Incisive Media, will feature keynotes from top executives at Thomson Reuters, Telegraph Media Group, The Economist Group, Reed Business, etc. Quintura is one of the platinum sponsors of the Forum together with search engine Exalead and Mondeca.

The presentation will focus on using Quintura Site Search by online publishers to drive engagement with site visitors in order to increase content consumption and Click-Through-Rate.

To sign up as a delegate of the Forum at a discount rate, please quote the Quintura name at the time of booking and receive 10% off the full package rate. Please contact Joanna Letts either by email (joanna.letts@incisivemedia.com) or call her at +44 (0) 207 316 9361.

• New Mini-Cloud Settings – settings for search results display,
• Banners – an interface to enable embedding images within search clouds.

New Mini-Cloud Settings

Display search results under the Quintura search widget. If this parameter is disabled, the widget will have no search results displayed and users will go directly to the full-size Quintura search cloud on a separate site page by clicking a word in the widget’s search cloud.

If a mini-cloud has search results displayed, the other parameters shall be set to open the full-size search cloud by Clicking a word or Clicking a result. On the full-size search cloud the selected search result will have a detailed annotation.

Banners

In tests, the favicons and banners that are embedded in the Quintura search clouds attract user interest to site search and have a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR). The Quintura affiliates that embed its site search now have the option to associate images (banners) with search terms.

This feature enables web publishers to accompany a search query with a favicon, which, when mouse-overed, will expand into a banner (see an example on http://affiliates.quintura.com/). The banners can also be displayed as the first result on a separate search engine results page. The favicons and banners are added in the Banners section of the administration page at affiliate publisher’s online account.

To try new features, embed Quintura Site Search for your site via http://affiliates.quintura.com

When corporate web-sites of consumer good companies such as Solvay Pharma become media for their brands, Quintura helps Solvay to better interact with their site customers.

Solvay has selected to place its own images and banners next to popular search keywords and phrases in Quintura site search cloud. The images are hyperlinked to Solvay Pharma product mini-sites, allowing the company to better display product information and direct site search users to it.

The web master of Solvay Pharma site has a Quintura online account to control placing images into the Quintura cloud and access to up-to-date site search analytics.

Quintura provides hosted site search services to Solvay for a monthly subscription fee.

The implementation is the first one that has been made by Quintura for a corporate web-site. It shows a growing demand for Quintura site search, analytics & monetization solution from consumer good companies.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Charles Knight explains:

“When you search with Quintura, you see a two-dimensional (i.e. not a list) tag cloud.

The other words in the box are there to allow you to explore concepts related to your specific query. See something you hadn’t thought of? Click on it and the cloud re-orients itself around that new term. You can delete extraneous terms as well. But don’t worry, they also provide a traditional list for you – just in case.

Quintura is also now available in several language “flavors” as well!

Content publishers should also investigate Quintura for possible use on their sites.”

The list of Top 10 Alternative Search Engines of 2008 (in alphabetical order) includes ChaCha, CoolIris, SearchMe, Viewzi, Faroo, KallOut, Kosmix, Mednar, Quintura, SeeqPod, Surfcanyon, and Taggalaxy.de.

Disclosure: Quintura is one of the sponsors of AltSearchEngines.

- Search Cloud Images: a new interface enables web publishers to embed images and banners (i.e. brand logos and advertisements) in the search cloud. When users mouse over an icon or search term, it expands into a banner, dramatically increasing the click-through rate in tests.

- Icon Blink: To attract users to images within the search cloud, we offer publishers customizable special effects, including blinking icons, to help boost Click-Through -Rates.

- Standalone Search Bar Option: The stand-alone search bar enables publishers to link Quintura Site Search to a separate web-page, so that when search terms are entered, a new window opens, displaying the full-range of search results.

- Color Customization – Additional color options allow web publishers to customize all aspects of the site search display, to match their web-site.

- Language Localization – We added French, Italian and Spanish morphology engines, in addition to the existing English, German, and Russian systems, producing more contextually accurate search results in a variety of languages and geographical locations.

Quintura Site Search is free for web publishers through an advertising revenue-sharing agreement and is also available on a subscription basis.

We have also updated Quintura Kids on www.quinturakids.com.

It is a safe, fun and easy-to-use search destination for younger internet users with Christmassy design.

Quintura Kids is used by thousands of elementary school students in the U.S., Canada, UK and other countries every day. According to site statistics, Quintura Kids has 75 percent returning visitors.

The site is the first visual search engine for kids that offers safe web searches for kids.

The search engine can be easily embedded onto any web or blog page as a search widget by clicking the Embed it! link in the top-right corner of the screen and copying & pasting an embed code onto the page.

In June 2007, Quintura Kids was ranked the highest among the kid-friendly search engines by Search Engine Watch.

The search engines for kids were ranked in five categories including a visual appeal to a child; relevance to a child, based on chosen searches; commercial vs. educational, with the educational slant creating a higher score; and ease of navigation for 7-10 year olds.

The Russian version of Quintura Kids has been also updated with a new look.