I just spent way too much time playing with Oamos. In fact, I registered for a free account so I could play even longer with some of my searches. So, are you asking yourself…how do you play with a search engine? At Oamos the mission is….”to play and discover content you’ll love – and nothing else.”

When you enter your search criteria in Oamos the search engine returns news, images, synonyms, music and video related to your inquiry. Search results are streamed in “audiovisually more or less objective or entertaining, with or without sound, with or without links.” You can try this search tool for up to three minutes (per search). You will probably want to set up an account so you can stream even longer.

The search tool also includes advanced search features that will refine your outcome and make it more relevant. For example, you will definitely want to put quotes around your search criteria terms if you are searching for more than one word (as in my “swine flu” search embedded below). You can also perform geographic searches using the maps link. In addition, you can adjust your search to favor objective or entertaining results and modify and experiment with different templates. This search tool is highly responsive to your interaction and input.

So, how would this work in a classroom? I’m not sure that it would if your school has blocked Google images. If the search tool does work, I think it would be a great way to introduce a current event or new topic. The imagery, sound clips, and textual presentation of search results offers a unique interactive cultural experience that could serve as an interesting opening to a new discussion about almost any topic. Students could watch a three minute stream and jot down quick responses related to the streaming search prior to opening a classroom discussion about a given topic. This search tool is probably best suited to students 9-12 or at the college level since the user does not have control of imagery that appears in a streaming search.

I have embedded a search below to give you a snapshot of what a Oamos search might look like. I turned off the sound, but there are several adjustments you can make prior to embedding a search on a website or blog. I wish I could better control the speed of the items that appear in a stream, but I have not found a setting for that yet.

Take some time to play with this unique search tool and share your thoughts using the comment link below. I think you will agree that Oamos is unique and different from most search engines you have used in the past.