4 replies to this topic

[Dave]

You've no doubt seen Google Instant, the new tweak in Google searching which takes you to the results page as you type your search. I look at Google Instant as an extension of their autocomplete feature. Autocomplete has been around a while, but where I thought Google was innovative was actually incorporating the link within the autocomplete box. So if you search "NFL" you might see "NFL schedule" and "NFL football" in the box, but you will get the link to NFL.com as the first entry in the box. I loved that, and it's what made me keep coming back to them despite how much I complain about their other practices. The benefit is that you can type, see your 'link result' in the box, hit the arrow key and go right to your result without having to use the mouse. That may seem like a small thing, but I have a lot of searching to do on a daily basis, so it's extremely convenient.

But that's gone now. The result page autoloads, the autocomplete box gives unlinked suggestions, but you're back to manually clicking the link. Not a huge deal but one worth mentioning nevertheless. I don't think it would be terribly difficult to add those 'link results' back into the autocomplete box.

The other behavioral change is the abrupt change of the user's eyeline. You begin typing in the search box in the middle of the page, then it jumps to the top as the results page autoloads. I type reasonably quickly, and seeing that box jump the first time make me stop in my tracks. It's very jarring. I can even foresee Google redesigning their home page to resemble more of an empty results page (which would avoid the search box jump). After all, the reasons they cite for implementing Google Instant are productivity/efficiency reasons. They're probably missing out on some quarter seconds by making the user's eye jump to that box.

I note these two points because behavioral changers are usually the hardest to ask the user to embrace.

[Chad]

There seems to have been a lot of small changes to Google lately. I don't normally embrace change. I hate that their image results page is now exactly what Bing does.

[Dave]

I didn't notice that until you said it. Now I can't remember what it used to be.

[monogodo]

You can turn off Google Instant.

[Chad]

Fantastic