This past week we have been looking at Video search engines.  We had the Top 10 Alternative Video search engines, a great Video Search debate, and yesterday we took a close look at Japanese video search engine Fooooo.

But fortunately for me, our readers are willing to suggest other search engines that we have not discovered.  In fact, readers’ comments are one of the main ways that we “find” new search engines.  We check out every single one.

Anyway, yesterday I got a comment form the good people at Trooker, a new video search engine, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it today.  Granted, Trooker is just searching a handful of video sites, but they make that very clear. 

Their emphasis is on sharing videos, or sets of videos, with others. In my case, I tend to “like what I like,” and don’t really think to share my videos with my friends. But if you do, that’s great, Trooker is all set up for you to do that. 

What I enjoyed about Trooker is Serendipity, or in Search language: Discovery. 

Search usually takes one of two forms.  I know what I want, I just need to find it - usually quickly.  This is sometimes called Navigational searching.  The second path is (as Donald Rumsfeld might say) I don’t know what I don’t know; I want to explore the Web.

So, how do you discover?  One way is to use the right Alternative Search Engine, one with a two dimensional cluster or map.  See our recent co-winners KartOO and Quintura as examples.  It’s like taking a walk in the woods.  You just go left, left, right, left -literally, on the screen- just to see whatever is around the next link.  There are also the recommendation search engines, like LivePlasma, that work in a similar fashion.  You name one song or artist or movie that you like, and it recommends others like it.

There’s also a search engine called “BananaSLUG.”  (That URL wasn’t taken, can you believe it?) You type in your query, and it adds a random word!  There are other randomizing engines, I’m sure.

With Trooker I found a fantastic video called “Green Fairy” with a beautiful song behind images of the GF.  (Caution: the singer does use the “F” word!)

Then I searched ‘wolves’ and found this video of a bizarre guy who went and lived with a pack of wolves.  Sorry, I skipped that one!  Our last hybrids spent most of their time on the living room sofa!

Finally, I tried ‘Aragorn’ (Kaila’s nickname for me) and found about 200 mash-ups of LOTR video with every imaginable soundtrack: “I’m here without you baby.” “Eye of the Tiger” and many more.  (Editor’s note: Someone used “Dream, dream, dream.”  That person needs help.)

Oh yes, what does “Trooker” mean? 

“It is a play on trick. When you send someone a video we call that trooking someone.”

Regards,
Alex Z.
Trooker

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Alts, Newcomers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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