What does information look like? And what should information look like?

I've got files buried in my hard drive that are like those single socks that disappear at the laundromat: I'm sure they're there somewhere, but I'll be damned if I can find them. These days I'm more and more careful to name files with telling keywords so I can find them when I need them, given that text is the only practical way to search a hard drive these days.

"Visual search" is a relatively new search tech, with the bulk of its apps written to search the web. (The closest thing we've got to visual search for our own machines is Apple's Cover Flow, which I find too primitive to be useful.)

Oleg from 3D Perspectives takes a test spin of five visual search engines: KartOO, TouchGraph Google Browser, Grokker, Oskope, and Quintura. Me, I'm not so much an early adopter with newfangled technologies; I like to wait until the dust settles, then try out the reigning champion. But I'd be willing to beta test and number of apps that would help me find those damn socks.