Nowsy.com: Adding Search to AJAX Homepages

JavaScriptSearch
Tuesday, July 25, 2006; 06:33 AM

Nowsy.com is the latest in a line of AJAX-powered websites that let the visitor customize his experience.  Quite like Microsoft  Live and Netvibes, Nowsy allows the user to syndicate content from various sources into "blocks", or "boxes" that can be dragged and dropped around the page.  What Nowsy does differently is the inclusion of search functionality, which can change the content of all boxes with one simple search.

Nowsy relies on RSS to bring its visitors information from  half a dozen default sources.  Additionally, content from practically any other news outlet or blog can be syndicated and displayed on the Nowsy homepage. No extensive knowledge of RSS is required. 

Arguably, there are sites that do a better job out of syndicating and displaying news and images, but the search on Nowsy is a truly innovative feature.  When you search for a keyword, all the RSS feed boxes are updated to show only headlines that match that particular keyword.  Thus with a single search you simultaneously get custom, real-time results from Digg, Google News, Hotjobs, and many more.

Nowsy.com is a small privately held company from the Netherlands. The development team said "Nowsy" is a combination of: news, now, for nosy people. But others have suggested that the name is apparently derived from "Now see".