The recent version 1.0 release of the SpaceTime^TM 3-D web browser offers a new search experience for consumers with high end graphics cards and broadband connections.This is not an attempt to emulate the fictional cyberspaces of William Gibson (Neuromancer) or Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash). It is a carefully structured, engaging and potentially quite practical way of browsing and searching.

SpaceTime™ via kwout

Separate web pages are displayed in different windows in a navigable 3D space, giving an effect similar to Java Desktop or Compiz Fusion.  The main search component is distinctive, pre-loading the top search result pages into a set of receding windows.  This gives a different feel to the information space.

SpaceTime™ via kwout

The search space begins to resemble a rank and file military formation, with separate searches organized abreast of each other with their results in single file behind them. The user gets an almost kinesthetic feeling for each items relation to their current activity with physical positions defining the recency of the search (more to the right) and relevance score (closer to the front).  The search spaces can be saved between browsing sessions, giving a new slant to the question “Now where did I put that?”

The interface design relates well to our greater facility for recognition over recall, and to greater retention of memories that involve a greater number of senses.  Time will tell which tasks are more suited to the richer interface and which are best performed with less elaborate representations.

Currently the search is limited to a pre-defined set of information providers.  Hopefully, this can be extended and configured in the future.  Many of the existing searches are brought in via RSS feeds, so it should be possible to extend the interface to allow users to query selected feeds and APIs.  This would allow the system to be tuned for business or scholastic use, rather then the currently dominant shopping activities.