The TouchGraph Google Browser is a new tool that visualizes the connections between web sites.

The TouchGraph Google Browser is in fact a marketing ploy of a company trying to sell its technology to companies facing information overflow. That’s fine with us, because nowadays most of us are struggling with too much information and too many search results.

If you do a search using the java-based Web service, it will give you the search results in a pane to the left of the web browser window and a graphic rendering of clusters of the same web sites to the right.

Topic clusters

The image above shows a small part of the clusters given by a search for the term “search engine marketing”. Yepp, the big P is Pandia.

If you let your cursor hover over a result (colored circle) a small box will pop up with the name of the relevant Web site. If you click on that site, the corresponding circle becomes the centre of that cluster, and you will see what other sites are related to that site.

Clusters of conceptually related websites (where every site is related to every other site) are given one color. You may change this color if you feel like it.

If you turn off your pop up blocker, a click will also open the the home page of the site in question. There are also buttons for changing the number of clusters displayed, filters and much more.

Similar pages

The presentation is clearly built on an analysis of web site inter-linkages.

The TouchGraph Google Browser actually uses Google’s Similar Pages function, helping TouchGraph identify network of similar pages on Google.

Mutual links can contribute to two pages being identified as similar, but frequent third party mentions of the two web pages together will also mark them as related.

Analyzing one site

You can also enter a URL in a search field in order to analyze the neighborhood of one particular site.

It works pretty well. In the case of Pandia it identified at least four clusters related to our site: on one search engines, one on pay per click advertising, one on news search and one related to Internet search guidance.

Used as a search tool

This is all very well, you might say, but can you actually use it for anything?

Well, it will not replace the regular Google search interface, that’s for sure. It is pretty slow and its graphical interface requires some concentration.

However, if you own a Web site, this is a great tool for exploring your own neighborhood. You will probably find patterns that surprise you: New sites, maybe, that deserve some follow up.

You may also be surprised to find that there are regions of the Web where you should have a strong standing, but where you do not.

This may become particularly clear if you compare your own site to your competitors. Maybe some link-building is needed, or some new posts and articles related to that cluster.

TouchGraph argues that you can use it for wide searches: “Follow the data by expanding your search around specific topics, or making the search broader when you don’t know exactly what you are looking for.”

In this respect it works well as a search tool.

There is also a Amazon browser and a Facebook browser (for your own Facebook networks and friends).

ToucGraph is not the first to try visual clustering of search results. We reported on the French search engine KartOO as early as in November 2002. KarOO also creates visual maps over web site relationships.

See also Servants of Chaos: Is This My Sphere of Influence?
Pandia: New experimental search engine from Microsoft: Tafiti (which also uses visual clustering)