What it is
Visual searches fall into two broad categories. Until recently, visual search referred only to image searches. Traditional searches for images have long functioned the same as text searches; search engines simply scanned the web for keywords in the text tags that accompany JPEGs, GIFs and other image types. More advanced visual image search engines focus on technology that can recognize colors or patterns within an image itself, rather than on just the surrounding text.

Lately, however, visual search has come to mean something entirely different. Visual search now more often refers to the visual presentation of search results. Instead of being presented with a text-based list of search results, consumers using visual search sites now receive their results in the form of snapshots or makeshift spreadsheets of the web pages on which their search results appear. (Try searching for your name on sites such as searchme.com to see what we mean.) The aim of visual search is to prevent users from wasting their time and clicking onto parked or irrelevant web pages.

Who's doing it
Kartoo, Searchme, Quintura, Viewzi

Why you should care
Visual searches offer an interesting spin on the humdrum presentation of traditional search results. Right now marketing opportunities on visual search sites are relegated to old-school text and banner ads, but marketers who keep an eye on the evolution of these sites may find themselves at an advantage over the long term. That's because visual search sites will likely require digital agencies to rethink their web design choices according to how their pages might be displayed differently on each of the disparate visual search sites.

Conclusion
And now the bad news for the new players in the alternative search engine market. Behind Google's 70 percent market share in April lagged Yahoo with approximately 21 percent of all U.S. searches, MSN with 6 percent of searches, and Ask.com with 4 percent of searches. Combined, the other 45 search engines Hitwise tracks ran just 1 percent of all domestic searches.

Translation: Despite the innovation taking place in the search market, the startups have a long way to go to catch up with even Google's strongest 48 competitors.

But stay tuned, says Sullivan. The search market is definitely something you want to keep an eye on.

He adds that if these sites start to show a substantial amount of traffic, that's when you want to start taking a closer look.

Leah Messinger is a freelance writer.