Can you get used to a search engine that has a creepy little mascot whose eyes follow you around as you click on icons?

If so maybe Kartoo is for you.

Kartoo is a meta search engine (see gallery) that is interesting from a user interface perspective. The search is so-so, but the presentation is worth noting. I’ve been trying it for a couple days as I explore life without Google. I rotated Kartoo with Ask and Live Search. Overall, Kartoo does inspire me to find some new interfaces. It’s just a little hard to use it repeatedly.

Kartoo uses the FlashPlayer to create visual results. Each result has an icon that has meaning–Word doc, recently updated, multiple pages and so forth. Hover over an icon and you can see the threads of your search and why the result appears.