Semantic search engine hakia launched a new user interface last week. The aim is to “take search beyond 10 blue links”. I have been wishing for some innovation in the way search engines presentats search results, so I’m curious to find out what hakia has done.

What’s new?

The search results are now divided into tabs.

The first tab – All Results – provides a three-column overview of the Web results, including results from hakia Credible Sites (credibility-stamped results from sites vetted by experts, at the moment best for health related searches), images and news, if available.

The right-most column is reserved for ads. I like that ads are kept in a separate, well marked column.

The remaining tabs let you filter the results depending on what you are looking for – credible sites, news and images.

The last tab, “Meet Others,” allows users to access hakia’s innovative social networking capability where users can meet others when they search for the same or similar information.

But what more has been added to hakia and are these additions improvements?

On the right side of the screen, three additional tabs allow users to access additional features exclusive to hakia. These are

• My hakia: A personalized start page that allows you to get emerging news and other dynamic content, all customized the way you want
• Sign in (hakia CLUB): Designed for those who are interested in hakia technology, partnership, and business. hakia CLUB members get privileged access to upcoming releases
• hakia Galleries: hakia generates pages of categorized results for popular queries, known as hakia Galleries. Galleries has results for various aspects of the search term, rather than just the 10 blue links we know so well.

Is it any good?

hakia is one of my favorite alternative search engines and I’m glad to see that this launch gives the site improved usability and new interactive options. This might very well make a real difference for users looking for an alternative to Google.

My hakia is not as customizable as Netvibes or iGoogle, but it is easy to use, uncluttered and convenient. But do I have to log in to the My hakia page for it to remember my settings? I don’t know because I can’t log in. All I get is a system error (is this a Mac thing?).

If login is required for hakia to remember my choices, then it’s odd to hide that login behind a tab called h-club.

The hakia galleries are very useful, a bit like Silobreaker.

The information on a gallery page is equivalent to conducting several web searches. Unfortunately, they are not created dynamically, so only a limited number of gallery pages exist. I look forward to more of these useful pages in the future.

Hakia has put a lot of effort into this launch. I like the three columns. It’s not unlike how Ask used to present search results until last week. And I liked that.

See also: Search company Ask.com makes some changes - does it matter?, where we also compare the new Ask with the new hakia.
You might also want to take a look at our interview with the people behind Hakia.