What can you use the application for?
Middlespot.com is a visual search engine that allows users to create pages from searches, known as “mashtabs”, which can contain almost any type of content. The site is designed to enhance the user's search experience. These mashtabs are designed to be personal start pages, the start pages for a research projects, or a pages belonging to a projects being worked on by teams. With a mashtab, users can collect web pages, images, videos, music, web widgets, files, documents, code and more in a central place. The content can be resized and rearranged, annotated, layered, shared and tweeted. More than one person can edit a mashtab. The site offers a search box for locating content to add to the mashtab. The site also offers a browser bookmarklet which allows users to collect content for their mashtabs as they browse the web.
The search box on the Middlespot.com site allows the user to conduct searches in one of five categories – web, news, images, amazon or twitter. Search results are returned in thumbnail form, and doing a mouseover of a search item pops up a larger view of the item, with the option of adding it to the user's current mashtab. Recent searches are shown in the left-hand column of the Middlespot home page. Users have a Dashboard, which shows their recent mashtab activity, a summary of the types of searches they have performed, a summary of the content they have shared, and recent Twitter activity for Twitter searches they have conducted.
What is the history and popularity of the application?
Middlespot.com was launched in October 2008.
What are the differences to other applications?
Competition to Middlespot.com comes from sites such as Snap and Viewzi. The Snap service can conduct a classic web search or a web enhanced search, which shows a list of results on the left-hand side while showing a snapshot of the currently selected item the on the right hand side of the page. Pages can be combined into “Snap Shots”, which are much like mashtabs. Viewzi returns results much like Middlespot, with a grid of text entry rectangles which bring up a snapshot of the website on a mouseover. Users of Viewzi also have the option of viewing the results as web screenshots, with one screenshot per page. The Middlespot.com site provides more tools for creating customized pages than either of the above sites.
How does the application look and feel to use?
The Middlespot.com site has a somewhat cluttered look and feel. The site is quite responsive once search results have been returned, but the searches are returned slowly, mainly due to filling in all of the thumbnail images of websites. The user interface is awkward and somewhat intuitive. The tools provided for creating mashtabs work well, but learning the interface will take some time. Text ads are displayed at the bottom of each page on the site, but they are relatively unobtrusive.
How does the registration process work?
Registration to Middlespot.com is free and is not required to use the site. Registration is required, however, to save the user's mashtabs. The registration process simply asks for username and password. Validation of the email address is not required.
What does it cost to use the application?
Registration is free and there is no premium membership offered to the Middlespot.com site.
Who would you recommend the application to?
Middlespot.com is recommended to anyone wishing to enhance their web search experience with some useful tools. The visual search is an informative method for viewing search results, although the user must sacrifice speed for the visual aspect. The site is especially recommended to anyone working on a project which requires a significant amount of web research as a place to consolidate the results. Mashtabs are a truly useful tool, and once the interface is mastered, are easy to create.
Rated
