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Show HN: A new search engine UX I've been working on in my free time

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Re: Show HN: A new search engine UX I've been working on in my free time

#3
I really like this. I've been working on my own personal search engine and might use a ux like this now. Question, how are you detecting whether the results are twitter posts/users and not random twitter pages (like the twitter career page for instance)? Also have you considered adding options to create this type of view for any page that has meta tags for title/desc/image and a logo?

Re: Show HN: A new search engine UX I've been working on in my free time

#4
post #3

I really like this. I've been working on my own personal search engine and might use a ux like this now. Question, how are you detecting whether the results are twitter posts/users and not random twitter pages (like the twitter career page for instance)? Also have you considered adding options to create this type of view for any page that has meta tags for title/desc/image and a logo?

jawerty, thank you for the encouragement! I appreciate it. Yes if you could use this UX somewhere that could be cool. It is kind of a new idea for website UX. It would be cool for a music player.

For Twitter, I'm just using a simple url check pattern for now to trigger it. It isn't perfect, but works well enough for now: /^https:\/\/[a-z\.]*twitter\.com\/[^\/]+$/i

Yes there are thoughts for even more column types like github, or imdb. But often the meta isn't that great, or there is no API, or no good embeds. Seems like websites are more closed off now vs in the 2000-2010s.

Re: Show HN: A new search engine UX I've been working on in my free time

#5
I like this quite a bit. I'd consider using something like this if only because it doesn't have ads at the top (it's a low bar).

Some comments:

- it seems like the order of the columns is not consistent across searches?

- I'm on the laptop and the columns extend past the edge vertically - I can scroll but it's not ideal. I expect this isn't a problem on a bigger screen.

- personally I don't care much for the Amazon and Instagram streams, although that might depend on the user. It certainly depends on what the search target is (any way to figure out if there's a near-perfect match with an Amazon product?)

- In general I think I'd like to see Wikipedia results first, but again, depends on what kind of search it is.

- (on laptop at least) it felt a little bit too dense, IMO, but I like pretty minimalist UIs.

Nice work!

Re: Show HN: A new search engine UX I've been working on in my free time

#6
post #5

I like this quite a bit. I'd consider using something like this if only because it doesn't have ads at the top (it's a low bar). Some comments: - it seems like the order of the columns is not consistent across searches? - I'm on the laptop and the columns extend past the edge vertically - I can scroll but it's not ideal. I expect this isn't a problem on a bigger screen. - personally I don't care much for the Amazon a…

Thank you for the detailed feedback pschuegr! Awesome you like it.

Would you prefer the columns to be consistent, vs dynamic based on search? Google web results are always first.

The order of the columns is based on the Google result ranking. The Google results usually trigger the column ranking generally. For example Wikipedia will only show if Google returns Wikipedia in the first 10 results. Same with pushing Instagram order up. So it is trying to show you relevant columns depending on the search. It is only as good as Google is at it.

What is the resolution of your laptop? I can test it to try to see what you see.

Yes it could feel too dense. It is a tradeoff. I could make it more minimal, but less info will show. I'm trying to make it as consistent/uniform/hierarchical as possible to make it feel less busy. It is very different, I am hoping people could get use to it and then like it better... but I may be wrong there.

Re: Show HN: A new search engine UX I've been working on in my free time

#7
post #3

I really like this. I've been working on my own personal search engine and might use a ux like this now. Question, how are you detecting whether the results are twitter posts/users and not random twitter pages (like the twitter career page for instance)? Also have you considered adding options to create this type of view for any page that has meta tags for title/desc/image and a logo?

jawerty, is there other pages/websites you would like added that would help you?

Re: Show HN: A new search engine UX I've been working on in my free time

#8
post #5

I like this quite a bit. I'd consider using something like this if only because it doesn't have ads at the top (it's a low bar). Some comments: - it seems like the order of the columns is not consistent across searches? - I'm on the laptop and the columns extend past the edge vertically - I can scroll but it's not ideal. I expect this isn't a problem on a bigger screen. - personally I don't care much for the Amazon a…

Ok based on your feedback I changed it so Wikipedia is grounded as the 2nd column more, should help with preference and making it feel more consistent. Let me know if it feels better for you now.

Wikipedia will still need to be 1 of the first 10 Google results to trigger the Wikipedia column though.

Re: Show HN: A new search engine UX I've been working on in my free time

#10
post #2

Would love any feedback you have :)

Is it intentional that each site section is only 80% of the screen width? Definitely make that 100% width. Phones are narrow enough already.

Thank you for the feedback. There is a peek of more content to indicate it is swipe-able to see more. Kind of like websites do with images, like Netflix for example.

Do you think if it was 100%, then people would still understand they could swipe?

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