Once you've associated with another person, all your searches via Qyo are visible to them (and theirs to you), unless you specifically choose to search privately. Search queries appear as a message list on the right-hand side of the screen. You can comment on other peoples' searches, perhaps telling them where they went wrong or giving them clues, but that's about it. You can't refine their search, expand it, or alter it in any way. This feels limiting.

A more powerful feature can be found in the subnet feature that lets you subscribe to groups and pass your search out to them (and their searches to you, of course). This also lets you make new contacts when somebody responds, for example.

It's not hard to imagine how Qyo's designers anticipate the site working: Whenever you arrive at the site to search you'll see all your friends' searches too. You can comment on them, or just chat generally. Search suddenly becomes social.

However, I'm not sure any of us want to share our searches in this way. Just like everybody thinks they have a sense of humor, everybody thinks they're the best Googler in the world. Asking for help searching can be a humiliating experience.

Qyo is tagged with a beta icon but in reality it's more alpha-release. The website didn't even display properly in my Google Chrome browser, with some text overlapping graphical items.