Quintura challenges Google’s Wonder Wheel

Quintura recently received a U.S. patent describing their search graphical interface with maps and images – like so:

If you read the claims of the patent and look at Google’s Wonder Wheel, you can see that it challenges Google. In fact, there are other search engines and search tools that utilize a Quintura-like graphical search interface. For example, AquaBrowser and Silobreaker. Quintura is currently working on licensing their search technology, which is protected by eight patents, to online information providers and search engines. I remember Quintura from my first Top 100 Alternative Search Engines list in January of 2007, and yet I came across this statement in a review dated May of 2009, “Google also showed off something it called the “Wonder Wheel,” a graphical way to explore topics by clicking on related searches that go deeper into the subject of the main query…”

To which I say, Sub sole nihil novi est – There’s nothing new under the sun.” If you want to see real innovation, you need to look to the alternative search engines, because they’re probably already doing it.