Abstract. Natural evolution is an open-ended search process without an a priori fitness function that needs to be optimized. On the other hand, evolutionary algorithms (EAs) rely on a clear and quantitative objective. The Novelty Search algorithm (NS) substitutes fitness-based selection with a novelty criteria; i.e., individuals are chosen based on their uniqueness. To do so, individuals are described by the behaviors they exhibit, instead of their phenotype or genetic content. NS has mostly been used in evolutionary robotics, where the concept of behavioral space can be clearly defined. Instead, this work applies NS to a more general problem domain, classification. To this end, two behavioral descriptors are proposed, each describing a classifier's performance from two different perspectives. Experimental results show that NS-based search can be used to derive effective classifiers. In particular, NS is best suited to solve difficult problems, where exploration needs to be encouraged and maintained.