User Interface (UI) enhancements attempt to improve the user experience and visual representation. Companies working in this area include; Snap, Live.com, and SearchMash. Another, Quintura, presents search results in a "visual cloud" that clusters results by meaning and intent. AskVox and Ms.Dewey use talking females to coach you through your search.

Technology advancements include; Hakia , Powerset , and Mindset , which search based on meaning or intent. Vivisimo and Ask.com present results in clusters that allow you to refine or expand your search. Findory, Jookster , Swicki , Collarity, and Rollyo do personalized or social search that present results based on your personal preferences or circle of friends. There are also a bunch of companies doing "tag" or "voting" based search...companies like Technorati, Digg, TailRank, and others.

Mobile search engines include; AskMobile, Boing, Google Mobile, Windows Live Mobile, Yahoo Mobile