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I like Google as much as the next Web junkie, but sometimes a little eye candy spices up an otherwise plain-vanilla list of search results. Viewzi offers several sweet looks for online search, though in most cases, style far outweighs results.

Viewzi (viewzi.com) transforms search results into various “views,” such as screenshots of Web pages and online photos you sift through like snapshots on a desk. Each view utilizes popular resources for its particular presentation, like Google for general info, Flickr for images and YouTube for video.

Simple Text View may be the best Viewzi vista, combining a list of results from Google and Yahoo with discreet pop-up thumbnails and Alexa rankings. Recipe View also gets a thumbs-up for letting you scroll through item images from 101 Cookbooks and other recipe sites like virtual index cards.

Now if only more Viewzi views delivered that kind of functionality to match their slick aesthetic.

Viewzi’s 3D Photo Cloud View floats Flickr images that are a chore to navigate, while Celebrity Photo View underwhelms with tired paparazzi shots that quickly stray to tangential at best. And while 4 Sources View sure sounds cool (it searches Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live Search and Ask.com at the same time) it looks downright boring with blurred black-and-white thumbnails that don’t look much better when you scroll over them for a bigger, colorful view.

Viewzi wants to change the face of search that, while not quite broken, could always do with a cool tweak here and there. It’s not a Google killer, but it does liven up what can be a boring experience. So if you’re looking for something more than just a list — and you like the look of results more than the results themselves — then by all means give Viewzi a looksee.

René A. Guzman | 210SA Contributor