Well, it's official - Grokker, one of the early innovators in visual result presentation - has closed its doors. 
As we wrote in our recent Enterprise Search Newsletter, they had been looking for someone to acquire the company and its technology; but apparently in this market at their asking price, no buyer came in to rescue the company.
Grokker's web site is still up and running, but we expect that won't last. Calls to its San Francisco phone number, and emails to the company, go unanswered.
As recently as last month, some New Idea engineering partners and friends were in negotiations with the company; but our inside sources tell us they were just not able to make a deal.
Grokker was one of the early innovators in visualization of results, and had integrated with a number of commercial search engines including FAST and the Google Search Appliance. One of the problems I think they had was trying to position themselves properly: were they a federation company like Deep Web Technologies and Muse Global; or an innovative visualization company with few real competitors? Maybe both needed to go together, but I think Grokker just wasn't able to generate a compelling reason for companies to buy. If you are a user of Grokker's software, tell us how you use it.
We're sorry to see them go.