The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Search Ninja
Quick Pitch: Search Ninja makes search easier and faster on the iPhone and iPod touch.
Genius Idea: Swipe through search results from search engines, reference sites and social media services.
One week-old Search Ninja is an iPhone app [iTunes link] that's all about fast and easy mobile search. The app offers users a query once, search everywhere experience that is expedient, intuitive and more practical than performing the same search queries across multiple sites or applications.
Search Ninja is specifically designed for "anyone who searches the web frequently on the iPhone," developer Ankit Ahuja says, indicating that the app's most remarkable feature is its ability to save users seconds as they search.
"You save a lot of time even if you only want to search Google," he says. "The more advanced users can customize this by adding custom search engines for the less popular services."
Fire up the $0.99 application and you'll see a simple search page where you can type in your query; Search Ninja displays Google search suggestions as you type. Once you enter your query, you can simply swipe through results from default search engines or call up the search engine menu bar to navigate to a particular service.
Search Ninja optionally saves your search history and groups queries by day. It also lets you star search results from a single search engine to quickly revisit results at a later time.
Search Ninja's selection of search engines includes Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha and Google Places, among others.
The app hides some extra goodies that make the experience all the more flavorful. Users can horizontally swipe to erase saved or past search queries, edit the default search engines displayed in the menu bar (on the home screen, select "…" from the top navigation and hit the "Settings" button) and add in extra search engines of their choosing.
Ahuja says he plans to improve the search history's appearance and add a central repository of custom search engines, as suggested by users, in future application updates.
Ten Mashable readers can grab the new app free of charge by using one of the following promo codes: YKMJ4PN9E3P6, 3KWTM4N3XFPE, HMAELR7FHRXF, ALWHHFNLJKPK, 439AMHYWFTAH, R4X3K67973HE, EJT3XFHWX3MF, FYAR9JMMWETJ, ETYRT774PPTT, JNXJ6T9WKN4.
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.