All search engines are not created equal, claims the developer of Yometa.com, a “visual search engine” that simultaneously searches any term on Yahoo, Bing and Google and then displays the results all at once as pins on a Venn diagram.

PHOTO, TOP, COURTESY OF AMBERG TECHNOLOGIES. IMAGE, BOTTOM, COURTESY OF YOMETA.COM

SPREAD Hits are color-coded by search engine

Yometa's algorithm ranks the top results of each search engine in sets, according to relevance. Results that appear in the Venn overlaps most likely contain the looked-for information. By hovering the mouse over any pin, a bubble pops up to offer information about the corresponding website.

It is surprising how often highly ranked results from one search tool may not even show up or are much further down the other two lists. A search for “Android construction apps” displayed 17 hits, showing eight only in the Google sphere, one that was only in the Bing sphere, and eight that were in the Bing and Yahoo overlap. However, with top hits on all three search engines, there was just one pin in the middle overlap: Androidzoom.com.

“Showing this in a non-linear, visual manner is a far more effective and user-friendly way to present meta-search information,” claims the founder, who identifies himself only as “Sri” but who seems to be Srinivas Saty, proprietor of Yometa.com, Batley, West Yorkshire, U.K. Yometa has shown up online only once, with its launch announcement in April.

Site performance bogs down with deep dives for less relevant hits, but unless you are surfing for fun, the top-level hits are probably what you want anyway. Try it. It's addictive.