Google Tackles Its “UI Jazz” Problem, Tests Streamlining Search Options Feature
Nov 19, 2009 at 2:00pm ET by Danny Sullivan
Sometime later today, a small number of Google users will see a new look to Google's Search Options feature. If all goes well, the cleaner display may be launched across Google after the New Year. And it's all because Google's vice president of search product and user experience Marissa Mayer doesn't like jazz.
Simmer down, jazz lovers! Jazz is just not her thing; she's not making a personal campaign against it. Instead, Mayer was using jazz to explain a pet metaphor she has about search results pages. They have their own "rhythm," and Google's results have been sounding a bit free fo [...]
Filed in: Features: General, Google: General, Google: User Interface, Google: Web Search, Top News
Google Experiments With Paid Inclusion & Does “Promoted” Meet FTC Guidelines?
Nov 16, 2009 at 1:35pm ET by Danny Sullivan
Just when you thought paid inclusion was finally dead with holdout Yahoo getting out of the space, it's come back from the most unlikeliest of sources: Google. Below, a look at the experiment plus reexamining the FTC's guidelines about disclosing paid ads. Does saying "Promoted Videos" on YouTube rather than "Sponsored Videos" meet these?
For those unfamiliar with paid inclusion, it is where advertisers pay to have their listings included within editorial results, rather than being listed separately from them as paid placement search ads. In paid inclusion, there's also no guarantee that th [...]
Filed in: Google: AdWords, Google: Business Issues, Google: Product Search, Google: User Interface, Google: YouTube & Video, Legal: General, Top News
Google Adds “Page Preview” To Search Options
Nov 3, 2009 at 9:51am ET by Barry Schwartz
Google Operating System noticed Google has added a new search option named "page preview." If you go to Google, search on something and click on "show options," you can then look towards the button on the left hand side and click on "page previews." For example, here is a view of a search for apple with page preview selected.
As you can see, Google adds thumbnails of the page directly on the search results.
Page previews is nothing new to search, Ask.com did it with binoculars and there are many Firefox add-ons that add page previews to the Google search results. [...]
Filed in: Google: Search Customization, Google: User Interface, Google: Web Search, Top News
Google’s Fading Home Page Tests Continue
Nov 2, 2009 at 9:10am ET by Barry Schwartz
On October 6th, we reported on Google's fading home page, which just showed the user a Google logo and a search box. Then after a gradual amount of time, the search boxes and other various links and navigational elements faded in.
Since then, Google has seemed to test two alternatives to this new home page approach. They tested adding instructions to inform users to "press enter to search" and now they are informing users that "this space was intentionally left blank." The "press enter" makes more sense to me than the "intentionally left blank" note.
Here are pictures:
[...]
Filed in: Google: User Interface, Top News
Google Defends Its Design Philosophy
Oct 14, 2009 at 2:38pm ET by Matt McGee
In an interview on TechRadar UK, Google's director of user experience goes a long way toward responding to claims earlier this year that the company's design team is too reliant on data.
"Data informs decision-making but it's less useful for conceiving and building conceptually new directions," explains Irene Au. "It's most useful for optimising and refining an established concept."
Au leads a 200-person user experience team that often gets involved in new projects long after the design has started. She tells TechRadar that projects are typically started by engineers, and a developer too [...]
Filed in: Google: User Interface
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