Google has been top of mind of search engines for quit some time now. Local search engines have closed their “shops” and if I say Altavista or Ask.com to the people around me they either get that nostalgic look on their face or they don’t know what I’m talking about. How do you find your information online? “I just google it”. That would probably be the answer 90% or more of the ones I would ask.

Last week when my chronicle for the Swedish edition of Metro Teknik came out I pushed the envelope by saying there aren’t many web services I haven’t heard about or already has got an account for. Sure there are but hey you need to be a bit cocky to stand out right? Anyhow because of that statement I got an email from Per Persson, one of the founders of the service, telling me about a new Swedish search engine called Spezify. Per was right, I hadn’t heard about that one which was not that strange since it launched today (at least for us non beta-users). As I was looking for some acknowledgment I decided to Spezify myself. This is what I got:

What differs Spezify from other search engines out there is how the results are being presented for you visually. You enter a keyword and the engine then searches through pictures, videos, blog entries, articles online, Twitter feeds and so on. Today the search engine find its information from MSN Live search, Yahoo, Amazon, Twitter and Ebay. According to a press release I got, that list will continue to grow.

I think it’s interesting to see other players in this field so dominated by Google today. When I typed in “lindapierre” the results were pretty ok but when I entered a space in between it was harder for the engine to find what I was looking for. In Google I always use “” to specify my search term, Spezify didn’t like that at all but sent me right back to the start page instead. I’m not so sure I will use Spezify if I’m looking for something in particular but if I’m not and want some new suggestions this might be the service for that. Earlier I have been using Stumble Upon for that “surprise feature” but how knows I might switch to Spezify instead. I am despite all a visual person and I like getting that kind of overview. With a bit more sources and the use of “” I think Spezify might have a bright future. Also I think it’s great to see Swedish startups aiming towards a international crowd! You go!

There has been a lot (not to under estimate) of talk lately about search engines. Here are some of them:

• Microsoft’s Bing
• The Google version of Bing called Bingle …
• The so called “knowledge engine” Wolfram Alpha
• Questionable search engine that censures for Jewish fundamentalist called Koogle