Addictomatic

Addictomatic is a nifty web application which aggregates information from all relevant social sites for a given search word. We all know how difficult it is to collect and collate information from the web. There are probably thousands of social sites which are likely to yield information about the topic one is interested in. Addictomatic has tried to simply the process of search and provides information on one single screen. What differentiates Addictomatic from other general search engines like Google and Yahoo is the presentation. Addictomatic essentially presents search results from popular social networking and news sites. Search results are shown in individual boxes representing a social or news site. Search results can be viewed simultaneously from different sources. Searches are culled from popular blogs, news sites like CNN and The New York Times, book marking sites such as Digg and Delicious, search engines like Google Blog Search and Yahoo and also from YouTube, Flickr and Newsvine. This news and search aggregator took off in 2008 which makes it less than a year old. Dave Pell, founder of Addictomatic created this site for people like himself who are addicted to the internet and have to sacrifice their normal social life. The social networking phenomenon is ironically antisocial in its outlook since the internet is an all consuming passion which can be rather addictive and hence Addictomatic. It is another matter that it makes one more addicted than previously. The presentation of search results is unique in Addictomatic. Since information is pulled through RSS feed from other social and news sites, the results are a reflection of its popularity on the net. Additionally, one can view information grouped site wise. For example one can obtain search results from Digg which is a book marking site as well as from general search engines like Google. Internet addicts can intuitively gauge the relevance of this presentation style. Instead of visiting hundreds of social sites and Blogs, one can easily gather information from a single presentation window. The user interface is simple and intuitive. There is no need of any help or assistance for a new user. One can intuitively navigate and use the application. The results page can be personalized and bookmarked for future reference. Search is simple and presentation is lucid. The entire application is designed for optimum user experience and eschews complicated navigation. In fact, the user interface is top class. The beauty of Addictomatic is its simplicity. There is no need for registration and one can start off using the application immediately. There is no need to provide email addresses and then follow a complicated registration process. This means one doesn’t have to provide credit card details, which can be quite a heartrending process. Since there is no registration process, it is free for users. Sometimes free can be quite a problematic issue with unwanted advertisements springing up surprises galore. The best part about Addictomatic is that the advertisements are unobtrusive and blend with the presentation. Addictomatic can be used by anyone. But net addicts will find this application truly a gem. Instead of browsing through umpteen sites to get information about their favorite topic, Addictomatic presents results in a single window.