We covered Circos.com back in January as “Social Search Engine“, and now in September, Circos relaunched with a new design and some innovative new ways to search – including a search by personality feature, and a concierge-esque guided search experience.

Circos, a privately-held company based in San Mateo, helps consumers to find personalized, premium lifestyle experiences online. By tapping into the collective knowledge of people across the Internet, Circos condenses user-generated content into meaningful tips about hotels, restaurants, and other relevant brands.

The new Circos.com features multiple ways to find the perfect hotel or restaurant. A concierge-like guided search experience walks you through your search with a simple three-step process. Circos’ “search by personality” feature connects you with the previous experiences of others just like you. This means self-professed hipsters find the edgiest urban hotel, while high-end diva foodies are shown exclusive restaurants with the most attentive staff and service.

“We want consumers to be able to find the perfect experience whether they’re traveling to a new country, dining out for a special occasion, or looking for the most relaxing spa,” said Morris Sim, Co-Founder of Circos. “Circos makes this happen by matching each consumer’s unique personality and needs with the shared experiences of others like her.”

From a technology perspective, Circos finds insights from user-generated content by collecting millions of reviews and opinions from hundreds of influential web sites, blogs, and conversations. The company’s algorithms understand the actual meaning of an author’s words, as well as the personality and preferences of that author. This enables Circos to surface only the best, most relevant insights, and match each searcher’s query with the experiences that are precisely suited to her needs.