Google backtracks on search results design • Hacker News Board

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#11

Post by jonny383 » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:17 AM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #9

jonny383 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I opened Chrome on a friends phone (first time on Chrome mobile in years) and was shocked to see the url bar is no longer editable. It just gave me a weird context menu with a copy icon. I guess they really want to funnel everyone through search...

Right next to that copy icon is a pencil - the edit icon.

Okay I didnt see that. But why is this necessary? What was wrong with the text box that opened what you would expect - the box filled out with the url of the page you are on?

In my opinion this is still a gentle push to encourage users to just type in a search query instead.

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#12

Post by dredmorbius » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:18 AM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #9

jonny383 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I opened Chrome on a friends phone (first time on Chrome mobile in years) and was shocked to see the url bar is no longer editable. It just gave me a weird context menu with a copy icon. I guess they really want to funnel everyone through search...

Right next to that copy icon is a pencil - the edit icon.

Yes: you cannot DIRECTLY edit the URL in the navbar.

Nor, for that matter, can you click, ctrl-A (yes, Virginia, I have and use a Bluetooth keyboard). Instead it's click, then Copy Icon.

Utterly blinkered.

Oddly: Incognito mode is not (yet) crippled in this manner.

Don't get me started on pull-to-nuke-whatever-you'd-been-composing-or-losing-your-place-in-infernal-scroll

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#13

Post by userbinator » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:19 AM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #9

jonny383 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I opened Chrome on a friends phone (first time on Chrome mobile in years) and was shocked to see the url bar is no longer editable. It just gave me a weird context menu with a copy icon. I guess they really want to funnel everyone through search...

Right next to that copy icon is a pencil - the edit icon.

In other words, an obfuscation of functionality that clearly shows their attempts at behavioural conditioning.

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#14

Post by clSTophEjUdRanu » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:23 AM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #13

Arainach wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right next to that copy icon is a pencil - the edit icon.

In other words, an obfuscation of functionality that clearly shows their attempts at behavioural conditioning.

More like- how often do you edit a URL in the bar on mobile? It's a pain in the ass.

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#15

Post by guerrilla » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:26 AM UTC

jonny383 wrote: post #7

userbinator wrote: post #4

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22107823 Does this mean they'll also "backtrack" on their destruction of the URL? I was extremely disturbed and horrified when I realised that not only did they replace / with >, but also seemed to arbitrarily remove and rewrite pieces of URLs shown in the results (e.g. all articles from HM would show nothing more than "news.ycombinator.com > item", which was…

I opened Chrome on a friends phone (first time on Chrome mobile in years) and was shocked to see the url bar is no longer editable. It just gave me a weird context menu with a copy icon. I guess they really want to funnel everyone through search...

It's really scary. And it's a shame Firefox is so slow on mobile...

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#16

Post by newscracker » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:26 AM UTC

supersrdjan wrote: post #8

Stubb wrote: post #6

Don't care. Haven't used Google since they put social engineering and ad revenue ahead of search quality and usability When I peek in from time to time, it looks intolerable compared to DDG's clean results.

I tried using duckduckgo but gave up after I kept getting irrelevant results for simple queries

If you wish to retry anytime in the future, you can use the bang commands to search elsewhere whenever the results aren’t satisfactory. I usually start with DDG, then if needed, I move to !s (for startpage) and then to !g (google). This does take more time, but for me it’s worth not having to use Google as much as possible. I’ve also become a bit wary of Startpage after it was recently acquired. There are many other alternatives too, like Searx, for example.

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#17

Post by pieterk » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:28 AM UTC

When will we realize that adwords and everything it inspired was a wrong turn for the internet?

I’d much rather pay a monthly fee to get the services I want.

I understand that Google and Facebook have gone too far down this path, and they will say such a service is not as profitable, but ultimately their business model seems unsustainable. People search for the truth, and while you can sell anybody anything, the truth will prevail.

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#18

Post by _jal » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:30 AM UTC

gwittel wrote: post #10

While I’m glad they reverted, the doublespeak is absurd. As if they didn’t know users would hate it. User experience had nothing to do with this. It was all about revenue. The main question after this is what user hostile move will they attempt next? Without major changes all over the company I don’t see how Google will get better.

Yes, it is about revenue, but I bet they honestly were surprised, at least at the magnitude of the pushback.

This is a very public embarrassment for a number of people - you don't intentionally risk this sort of thing. The most likely explanation is that they expected people like me to grumble but the vast majority to not mind. They were wrong.

> Without major changes all over the company I don’t see how Google will get better.

Agree with this. And major changes don't come without major systemic shock.

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#19

Post by dragonwriter » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:30 AM UTC

jonny383 wrote: post #7

userbinator wrote: post #4

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22107823 Does this mean they'll also "backtrack" on their destruction of the URL? I was extremely disturbed and horrified when I realised that not only did they replace / with >, but also seemed to arbitrarily remove and rewrite pieces of URLs shown in the results (e.g. all articles from HM would show nothing more than "news.ycombinator.com > item", which was…

I opened Chrome on a friends phone (first time on Chrome mobile in years) and was shocked to see the url bar is no longer editable. It just gave me a weird context menu with a copy icon. I guess they really want to funnel everyone through search...

> It just gave me a weird context menu with a copy icon.

Share, copy, and edit icons. While I'm not a big fan of it, it probably fits the frequency and relative friction of interactions on mobile better than the previous UI.

Re: Google backtracks on search results design

#20

Post by dragonwriter » Sat, Jan 25, 2020, 4:34 AM UTC

jonny383 wrote: post #11

Arainach wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right next to that copy icon is a pencil - the edit icon.

Okay I didnt see that. But why is this necessary? What was wrong with the text box that opened what you would expect - the box filled out with the url of the page you are on? In my opinion this is still a gentle push to encourage users to just type in a search query instead.

> Okay I didnt see that. But why is this necessary?

Probably because URL copy or share (the two icons besides edit than the new UI provides) are more common interactions than URL editing, and are (without a keyboard and with a traditional text edit control for the URL bar) higher friction; this streamlines the common usecases at the cost of adding an extra tap for URL editing.