I’ve had this idea in mind for years. I’ve called it Rotoscope. Here’s the premise: You’re unhappy with the current state of digital privacy, and you know one of the vulnerable areas you reveal your data is search. Change is difficult and you don’t want to keep going back and forth changing your browser default search engine, form new habits, etc. As a power user of search, you’re realizing it’s time to bypass what the Googles and Bings are promoting up top and on the first few pages because it’s serving advertisers with deep pockets, not you.
A common scenario, you’re looking for a particular item, perhaps a tool, or article of clothing. Going directly to a specific store would bypass big tech, but then you find yourself searching over and over when that item isn’t found. Or more likely you want to check prices and look for associated products on competitor sites quickly. Google, Bing and Amazon are fast but they are also three of the biggest data collection firms. And their amassed data has also made it harder for medium and small retailers to compete and so stores we want to succeed are getting swallowed up. On Rotoscope, you can type your query once, look for the most appropriate sites (or try some you’ve never heard of), and follow those links directly to your search terms on their product results. It works because of the way searches work on almost every site, query string patterns.
These are reasons why I’m building Rotoscope. It takes your single search query and let’s you easily and consciously rotate to different smaller search engines, trying them out. And as you type your search, you can scope out specific outlets you’d like to try out, while still having access to big tech on the same page. And you can open new tabs for each location and see your search completed for that site. This is all happening just on your screen. So big tech only sees your search if you decide to utilize it. And if you want, you can open anonymous tabs to view results. Rotoscope is for the power user, the researcher, the person who often finds themselves repeating searches over and over.
Overall Mechanics
Type your query into the input field. Watch as the query is built across all these other relevant sites. I’m working on the category building, putting data together. I’ve got my alpha version pulling in a bunch of alternative general search engines. And I’ve got a Tools & Outdoor category, and a Video Search category. An additional 8 or so categories are in the works. After you type, you can see possibly where you might go. The idea is, if you are interested in research, or privacy, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket, like Google, where it will track you. You might ask, ‘why do I care if Google knows all about me, and has developed an extensive dossier on me for purposes of marketing to me and selling data and access to anyone they want? Besides several alternatives to Google, while maybe slightly more private are still delivering nearly exact Google results, which by now you might have noticed aren’t exactly the best.
So you choose a site as your target (or several), and ideally you will open a new tab for each of the destinations. I use the scroll wheel on the mouse to open new tab. So in a scenario where you are searching for a ‘garden rake’ or maybe a certain supplement, you type it in and maybe open directly a link to the query for a home store or maybe a nutrition boutique or grocer. That’s the idea. You’re scoping out ahead of time, you’re rotating through different destinations for what best suits you.
Now before you say it sounds like more work, If you just press enter upon searching, you will be directed to a random rotating general search from one of the designated sites. So each search will take you
Later Phases
The phases as I go, I’m working on the user experience for maximizing the view. I’m in the research and ongoing feedback loops for what simple vs complex searches can look like. Also getting categories more ironed out and how searches detection and some light intelligence can be integrated. And once somebody can log in, what does customization look like, promoting favorites to the top, and even connecting full A.I. to the search.
Research and Development
Funny a lot of the pieces as they’ve come together aren’t that interesting to me, always subject to change, always not quite what the original vision was. But people still like to see those pieces. I can understand. I’ve watched an enormous share of behind-the-scenes documentaries of movies.
