Immediately after I saw Noam's post on SearchMe, I busted over to their site to sign up for the beta. And today I'm pretty stoked to report that I got into the beta. I think visual search is the next thing in search and I think SearchMe, by emulating the iPhone album "thumb through" interface, whether intentionally or not, hit the nail on the head. My biggest problem with search results is something they talk about in their promo video. The constant forward back of going through the crappy results looking for the relevant one is annoying. I love being able avoid those crappy ad site with keywords sprinkled in to draw search.
It definitely is a beta, and I was slightly disappointed there wasn't a gesture based interaction. The index is small but the concept and overall execution are pretty huge. I know someone is waiting in the wings to tell me that visual search is not new - true enough, but visual search that looks like it has a change to succeed is. Hmm, I wonder if the prospective buyers are already circling?
Here is their Promo Vid: