The geeky librarian side of me could barely contain itself when I started reading the FAQs for Sortfix - a search interface that remixes searches from search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and dmoz and suggests “power words” and provides drag and drop keyword searching.  I am still lamenting the loss of the grokker-powered visual search in EbscoHost, so I am excited to see any other attempts at improving search visualization.  While Sortfix doesn’t provide a visual representation of the search results (besides the ubiquitous list), it does give a visual look at the way search terms are put together.

Sortfix uses boxes at the top of the search results list which contain the individual search terms you entered, a box to remove words from your search, and a box of “power words” - words suggested by Sortfix that should make your search more powerful (and which can also be removed).  For example, when I searched the cost of concrete countertops, some of the power words were square foot and home maintenance articles.  So, I can add power words to my search, or whittle the search down by dragging and dropping words into the appropriate box.  There is even a dictionary box to drag words with which you are not familiar - a variety of definitions are available (not to worry).

The advanced search feature allows you to search with “or,” phrase search or synonyms.  (An aside - oddly enough you have to sign up for advanced searching and provide demographic data like your age and gender, hmmm).  I think this could be a fantastic option in a bibliographic instruction setting where you were trying to explain boolean operators, phrase searching or the importance of synonyms.  If anyone gives it a try, let us know how it works!