Topic: User interface

Amazon Fire Phone: Bing For Search, Nokia For Maps

The emerging consensus from the early “hands on” or “first look” reviews is that the Amazon Fire Phone has some novel and interesting features but that it doesn’t measure up, overall, to the iPhone or “true Android” devices. I’ve argued that Amazon missed the boat with its high-end pricing. Interestingly, there has been almost no […]

Yahoo Search Testing A Fixed Top Search Bar

Ruben Gomez noticed that Yahoo is testing a new user interface for their search results, which sticks the top search bar to the top of the page, no matter how far you scroll down the page. Here is a picture showing the scroll bar midway down the page, but the top search bar stuck at […]

No Joke: Google Maps Brings Back “Search Nearby” Feature

You’re going to hear a lot of rejoicing when this news spreads: Google has returned the “search nearby” feature to Google Maps. #celebrate!!! Amidst all of today’s Google April Fools’ joke announcements, the company tweeted the feature’s resurrection earlier today. After doing a search on Google Maps, you can click again in the search box […]

Google’s New Look Search Results: Still An Experiment

More and more searchers, SEOs, webmasters and advertisers are seeing the new Google design test we’ve covered here a couple times where the ads blend in more to the search results and the font size is larger and the underlined links are gone. Last night, at Search Marketing Expo West, Google’s head of search, Amit […]

Google Brings Back Right-Click-For-Directions To Google Maps

Google Maps users can once again right-click anywhere on the new Maps to get quick directions to or from the spot that they’re clicking. They can also use the “What’s Here” option to quickly get the lat-long coordinates for any spot on the map. These are two of many features that users have asked Google […]

Yelp Supersizes Its Local Profiles, Makes Them Less Busy

Yelp has redesigned parts of its web UI to make them more visual and to surface more information. In particular business profile pages have been changed to emphasize images, featured user reviews and key pieces of local content, all of which are now more prominent. The changes are not yet live for me, which is […]

Yahoo Adds Local Business Snapshots Next To Search Results

You’re gonna say to yourself, “That looks a lot like Google’s local search results.” I’m talking about the latest interface change that Yahoo has announced: the display of local business information alongside search results. The local business info includes basic business information, photos, hours of operation and some data specific to the business type — […]

Google Now Changing The Top Search Filters Based On Query

Google is now dynamically changing the top search menu/filters based on the search query entered by the searcher. So now, what options you see at the top might differ or be in a different order based on the query you enter into Google’s search box. A Google spokesperson told us this based on noticing that […]

New Google Maps Adds More Search Results To Info Window

The (relatively) new Google Maps is certainly visually richer than the old Maps UI. However it may be somewhat less functional. As one example, it eliminates one of my favorite and most-used features: “search nearby.” It’s now also somewhat harder to access multiple results on a category query, ironically. Yesterday, Google Operating System spotted a […]

Now “Undo” Google AdWords Changes From Change History Reports

Taking action after a completing a test in Google AdWords may just have become a whole lot easier. An new “undo” button was spotted last night in the Change History reporting by Heather Cooan, director of client services at Clix Marketing. Here’s a screenshot from Heather’s account after she clicked on the “undo” button next […]

Yahoo’s Most Recent Homepage Updates Roll Out In Select European Countries & South Africa

Launched last February in the US, Yahoo has rolled out its new homepage in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Ireland and South Africa. According to the announcement posted on Yahoo’s UK blog, the new homepage will display consistently across desktop, mobile and tablet devices. Yahoo says the new homepage is both “functional and intuitive” […]

Google Testing Site Name & URL In Search Result Snippets

Last month we saw Google testing displaying the site name in place of the URL in the snippets of the search results. Now, Rubén reports Google testing a nicer approach, showing both the site name and the URL in the snippet. So when you search for this site, it will show “Search Engine Land – […]

Google Launches New Card-Based “Unified Design” Search Results For Mobile Devices

Google has just rolled out their new “more unified design” of displaying search results for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablet devices. As expected, Google said A new “more unified design” will offer “cleaner and simpler, optimized for touch, with results clustered on cards so you can focus on the answers you’re looking for.” Here […]

Bing’s Page Zero Offers Deep Links & Shortcuts To Relevant Information Straight From The Search Box

Today, Bing released a detailed overview of its Page Zero experience, a new search feature that delivers deep links directly from the search box with shortcuts to relevant information associated with the search term. According to the announcement, the new feature gives “best” auto-completion suggestions for a query, as well as displaying “rich information” related […]

Google Expands Their Web Definitions

Google announced on Google+ that they have overhauled the Web definitions interface and results, adding a lot more meat and details to your definitions queries. The new options include an expandable box that contains additional synonyms, ways to use the word in sentences, the origins of the word, translation, the use of the word over […]

Bing Testing Favicons In Search Result Snippets

Bing is testing displaying favicons in the search results, next to the title of the search snippet. A reader, Joshua Hedlund, emailed us a screen shot of this test. Bing has confirmed this is not a browser extension modifying the search results, but rather one of Bing’s many tests to the search results user interface. […]

Google AdWords Testing New Drop-Down Navigation Ad Extension

Have you seen this new ad extension keenly spotted by Kim Clinkunbroomer of Philly Marketing Labs? As Clinkunbroomer pointed out, the “I am Looking For” ad extension gives users a drop-down navigation menu with links — in this case 10 — to specific sections of an advertiser’s web site. In Clinkunbroomer’s screenshot below, you can see […]

Bing Brings Faster Search Results, Infinite Image Scrolling, Snapshot & More To Windows Phone 8

Bing announced a number of new upgrades today for the Windows Phone 8, including search feature design updates, infinite scrolling for images and videos, ten new “Instant Answers” topics, and a new mobile version of Bing’s “Snapshot” feature that offers at-a-glance information. With the new updates, tapping the Search feature on a Windows Phone 8 […]

Twitter Launches Its Version Of Universal Search Results

Twitter is in the process of rolling out what you could call its version of “universal search results” on Twitter.com. The changes bring Twitter’s Web search more in line with the current mobile experience. Twitter announced the changes this afternoon via tweet: Search update on https://t.co/eNvqKTup1d: See photos & accounts in results + recent searches […]

Facebook’s Graph Search Then & Now: What’s Changed

Facebook has started rolling out Graph Search to all US English users, a move that comes about seven months after the product first launched to a small number of users in mid-January. Graph Search has gone through some changes since then, perhaps none more obvious than when Facebook changed the search box white to make […]

Google’s Mobile “Quick View” Trial Appears To Be Over

Google appears to have quietly put an end to a long-running trial that added a “quick view” option next to mobile (smartphone only) search results from select websites. The feature offered searchers a fast way to see a lightweight version of a webpage without having to fully click through and load the page. We first […]

Google Testing “In-Depth Articles” Search Results, A New Rich Snippet?

Dr. Peter Meyers, the Marketing Scientist at Moz (formerly SEOmoz), tipped us off to a new Google search interface test. It appears Google is testing showing “in-depth articles” in the search results for local queries. In the screenshot below, Pete triggered these results by searching for [mexican restaurants]. The local results and maps came up, […]

Google Images Tests New Related Searches User Interface

The Google Operating System reports Google is testing a new Image Search interface for related searches. The example given shows images for [nexus 7], At the top is a carousel of related searches to the [nexus 7]. When you click on one of those related images, Google will show you a larger thumbnail image of […]

How To Search Your Own “Pins” On Pinterest

Pinterest announced a new, useful search feature that allows you to filter your search results to just your own Pins. You can now search for images that you’ve pinned and filter out all the other search results from other users of Pinterest. Can’t remember an image you’ve uploaded? Just search for it and Pinterest should […]