Here are five offbeat search engine paths, courtesy of Search Engine Land:
• Track This Now - A news search engine that tracks results geographically on Google Maps.
• StateStats - Shows the populatirty of any search term on a state-by-state basis. For example, states in the southeast U.S. tend to do the most searches for ”Walmart”.
• Jogli - A music search engine claiming to have 12 million albums and 500 million songs on hand.
• 2itch - A local search engine listing businesses that are open 24-hours-a-day, on a Google Maps interface.
• Ninja Tickets - A ticket site that attempts to spot the best values in tickets…
Search Engine Optimization reports that Google search results have now been optimized for the iPhone and G1 mobile devices. The revision avoids the need for zooming or sideways scrolling on the phones. Here’s a sample of what it looks like, courtesy of SEO: 
Worio is a new engine that’s partly a social bookmarking site as well. It searches, in part, according to what other people have preferred in the same category. Sort of a search consensus builder. This is called “using recommendation techologies to improve the search experience.” 
If you’re part of or interested in the Arab world, you’ll want to check out Yamli, the new search engine that tracks transliterations of Arabic words and titles. As reported on ArabCrunch, Yamli takes account of the frequent use of latin characters for Arabic expression and delivers all versions of a given word or term.
Whether it’s a true search engine, or “simply” an extremely effective agglomerator of material from, for example, Google for text, Microsoft Live Search for images and YouTube for video, Yamli is an extremely helpful tool. It also includes a Smart Arabic keyboard that simultaneously translates English,…
Website Auditor Enterprise, from Link Assistant, is another software package for maximizing a website’s appeal for search engines. We get a little uncomfortable when a firm claims “guaranteed #1 search engine placement,” as Link Assistant does for Website Auditor. But the software sounds well-conceived and is modestly priced. So give it a look if you’re in the SEO market. 
A software package that’s similar (only paid) to Firefox’s SEOQuake, described yesterday on Shootout, is SEO SpyGlass. SpyGlass allows you to analyze web pages, including those of your competitors, for factors that produce high search engine rankings. 
Want a second opinion on Internet-based medical advice? Try RightHealth.com. We came across this site in reporting last week on the emergence of Kosmix, the search engine that explores topics rather than simply providing references to them. 
The founders of Kosmix, Anand Rajaraman and Venky Hannarayan, are also behind RightHealth, notes Bigmouthmedia, “which according to Hitwise has become the second largest health site in around twelve months.”
Kosmix produces a homepage for every medical topic on RightHealth.
AltSearchEngines advises us of Grocio, a new comparison shopping search engine for groceries.
Based in Tulsa, OK, Grocio doesn’t yet have coverage in all areas of the country, nor does it indicate how it gathers its pricing information at local grocery stores. If you sign up, it says it will let you know when it’s active in your area.
The new service pledges to identify the least expensive grocer in your area, match coupons to the items you intend to buy, and save coupon-clipping time. You go to the Grocio site, type in the items you plan to buy and get the lowest-priced…
Bigmouthmedia calls our attention to Kosmix, another fast-growing search engine with a twist of its own. Located in Silicon Valley “just around the corner from Google,” Kosmix has $55 million in start-up funding from Time Warner, former Motorola boss Ed Zander, Jeff Bezos and Accel Partners.
What’s attracting these venture folks is Kosmix’ concept of functioning as an “explore” engine rather than a search engine plain and simple. That is, for a specific piece of information, head to Google or Yahoo! To explore a topic broadly, try Kosmix. It gathers information from Google and a number of other sources as well –…
Here’s a new search engine – Unamoo – that aims to be safe for use at home, school or work in terms of avoiding offensive adult content and phishing. It filters out adult content before rendering search results. Little chance, its advocates feel, of something abhorrent getting through, especially as Unamoo matures. It’s aimed for homes, schools, libraries, churches and work places. 
