Journal

Point of Viewzi

26 April 2008 › 20 comments

Photo by Travis Isaacs.

The following is an obligatory “I’ve switched jobs” blog post. But not just any job, I’m now at Viewzi.com. As it reads on my business card, my job title is Front-End Viewzeloper. What is Viewzi, you ask? Good question! In a nutshell, it’s a new way to look at search. Here’s a succinct explanation:

Humans think in pictures. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Viewzi [is] worth a million searches. But don’t think of us as yet another visual search engine. It’s more than just pictures, it’s about visually presenting your results in the context of what you are searching for.

For instance, searching for the term NBA and then choosing “Video ×3 View” yields an array of results, as shown in the following screenshot. This figure doesn’t do it justice though, because each thumbnail in the video view has full motion, showing a few seconds of each one in fast-forward, on a loop.

This is great for basketball fans such as myself: ½ Japanese and standing only 5’10” tall, this is about as close as I’ll ever get to a professional court! Joking aside, I am excited about the office culture at Viewzi. It is is fast paced, yet relaxed. Here are a few of the highlights…

• Powered by a mix of PHP, Flash and Web Standards.
• 100% Mac shop — Windows via Parallels + VMware.
• No dress code — “Business casual” is too formal.
• Café Viewzi — Team lunch every Friday at noon.

Viewzi is also cool about giving outsiders a glimpse into our process. From time to time, we post video updates to Viewzi.tv, such as the following explanation by Stephen P. Anderson about the “wall of wonder,” the giant cork-board used to track all proposed, in-progress and completed search views. As you can see from the brief film, we don’t take ourselves too seriously at Viewzi, but still manage to get a lot accomplished.

Anyway, that about wraps it up. Expect to see future blog posts about my new adventures at Viewzi. One more thing… If an engaging environment working with smart people on cutting-edge stuff is your cup of tea: We’re hiring.

Discussion + Dissension

1. #1 Karl Swedberg

   Congratulations, Nathan! Sounds like a great place to work.

2. #2 Yannick

   Congrats Nathan! haha love the new job title. :)

3. #3 Chris Pallé

   Awesome, Nathan. Congrats.

4. #4 Erik

   Good for you, Nathan. You are one of the best ninjas on the net, so they are lucky to have you.

5. #5 Ryan

   Congrats bro! Looks like a great place to work!!!

6. #6 Matt

   Wait, what? How do you already have business cards? It took three months to get mine, and then they printed my phone number wrong. )-:<

7. #7 Robert

   Hey Nathan, congrats! Sounds like a fun place where I am sure you are going to do awesome at!

8. #8 Larry

   Congratulations! The only downside to this new job that I can see is that now your office can be found… no more 404 errors ;)

9. #9 Josh Cramer

   Nathan, that sounds exciting. Great move!

10. #10 David Brooks

    Congratulations, really interesting concept for a search process too. I’m betting you’ll have a lot of fun.

11. #11 Travis Isaacs

    See you monday, I get in the office at 7 :)

    Seriously, we’re immensely excited to have you Nathan. I can’t wait to see what you’ll do at Viewzi.

12. #12 Mike Rundle

    This is the first time I’ve heard about Viewzi and it looks really awesome. Congrats! Hopefully they give me a beta invite soon :)

13. #13 Joe

    Nathan, congratulation on your new job. This project your working on reminds me of this tool which is pretty similar.

    http://www.yourergo.com

14. #14 Matthew Pennell

    Congratulations on the new job, Nathan – sounds great! :)

15. #15 Daniel Marino

    Hey that’s awesome, congrats! I was looking at viewzi the other day and am anxious to try it… say… maybe you could fast-track my beta invite… wink wink nod nod…

16. #16 Michael Montgomery

    Congratulations (again)!

    Seems like a great group of people.

17. #17 Mark Priestap

    Congrats Nate! :)

18. #18 scot copeland

    Congrats to you. That’s an insanely smart group of guys you’re gonna be running with. Be sure to tell Mancini to tame his beard!

19. #19 David Sutoyo

    Just got a Viewzi invite today. Looks great! Congrats.

20. #20 Nathan Smith

    @Everyone — Thanks for the kind words and support. It’s been a good ride so far, though I’m still learning the ropes and getting the hang of YUI.

    @Scot — Not to worry, Chris Mancini is unreservedly rockin’ the beard!

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