Google Instant Search Released • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#101

Post by ugh » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 6:57 PM UTC

mrshoe wrote: post #84

I'm sorry, but this is a solution to the wrong problem. I switched from AltaVista to Google back in 1998, not because their search engine returned results more quickly, but because their results were much more relevant . In the past few years, SEOs have set up micro-sites on just about any topic I could possibly search for and they've managed to rank highly for those topics. Am I the only one who's sick of being take…

Google is a large company. I’m pretty sure that they have a lot of people working on search quality.

This seems like a popular fallacy (Does it have a name?), probably a result of anthropomorphising companies. It’s hard for a human to solve more than one problem at once and if they do they have naturally less time for each problem.

Sure, there can be similar effects in companies but it’s certainly not inevitable, not as inevitable as with humans, anyway. We just don‘t know whether improvements in search quality suffered because of this new feature. It doesn’t strike me as something search quality people would typically work on, though.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#102

Post by orangecat » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 6:59 PM UTC

orblivion wrote: post #77

Do we really need this? Isn't the time it takes to finish a query the last problem on our hands? Or am I just a spoiled fast typer?

We don't "need" it, but taking Google's stats at face value for the moment, it will save 350 million hours per year. That's not insignificant.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#103

Post by joey_bananas » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 6:59 PM UTC

Annoyingly busy. I sort of feel like this is a prime example why you don't put engineers in charge of UI. Just because we can is not a good enough reason to do it.

Also, having both a dropdown and a whole page refresh, what?

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#104

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 7:00 PM UTC

laktek wrote: post #97

AlexC04 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've really hit the nail right on the head for exactly what I've been feeling some sort of odd, decentralized anxiety about for a while. While reading your comment I realized that was the problem. Google kinda sucks now because of people gaming the system. But who else is out there? I'd probably switch my search if I knew where else to try.

Maybe to duckduckgo.com ?

[deleted]

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#105

Post by Brashman » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 7:01 PM UTC

btilly wrote: post #98

My opinion is that this is a challenge to Microsoft. "So you want to compete in search, well match this! See whether your server infrastructure can hold up!" Having used the feature for a while, what I've found is that I basically don't finish typing. I just stop when I have good enough results. At first I found it annoying, but after I got used to it I found it very nice. Now I find myself annoyed that it isn't buil…

The fact that it's not built into Chrome's search bar means that I will never see it after the 5 minutes I just spent playing with it. I've been searching from my browser, whether Chrome or Firefox, for a long time now.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#106

Post by desigooner » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 7:02 PM UTC

crux wrote: post #83

Speaking from a UI standpoint, I find the leap of the bar from the middle to the top of the screen to be very disorienting. I know that the middle-of-the-page input field is a real visual trademark for Google, but if they want to push this feature, they might have to move the box up to where it is currently leaping.

IMO, this change is a little distracting and annoying as far as my searches go. Putting that aside, a question that arises is how will this affect the user in terms of accessibility and screenreaders.. usually autofocusing to fields is not encouraged as far as accessibility is concerned.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#107

Post by nkohari » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 7:03 PM UTC

Brashman wrote: post #105

btilly wrote: post #98

My opinion is that this is a challenge to Microsoft. "So you want to compete in search, well match this! See whether your server infrastructure can hold up!" Having used the feature for a while, what I've found is that I basically don't finish typing. I just stop when I have good enough results. At first I found it annoying, but after I got used to it I found it very nice. Now I find myself annoyed that it isn't buil…

The fact that it's not built into Chrome's search bar means that I will never see it after the 5 minutes I just spent playing with it. I've been searching from my browser, whether Chrome or Firefox, for a long time now.

It's just an asynchronous load of data, so I don't see why Chrome couldn't leverage it as well. Might lead to some interesting UI, actually.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#108

Post by btilly » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 7:05 PM UTC

Brashman wrote: post #105

btilly wrote: post #98

My opinion is that this is a challenge to Microsoft. "So you want to compete in search, well match this! See whether your server infrastructure can hold up!" Having used the feature for a while, what I've found is that I basically don't finish typing. I just stop when I have good enough results. At first I found it annoying, but after I got used to it I found it very nice. Now I find myself annoyed that it isn't buil…

The fact that it's not built into Chrome's search bar means that I will never see it after the 5 minutes I just spent playing with it. I've been searching from my browser, whether Chrome or Firefox, for a long time now.

How long do you think it will be until there are plugins giving you the same feature in Firefox and Chrome?

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#109

Post by sz » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 7:09 PM UTC

ugh wrote: post #44

acqq wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK not SafeSearch but "in addition," the second part of your qute.

You basically have to press enter if you want to search for a term with possible pornographic, violent or hateful content (that’s what they just said in their Q&A). That seems like a sensible solution to me. Safe Search doesn’t figure into it.

They probably do something like: if a search term returns a high density of SafeSearch-flagged top results, then don't autocomplete.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#110

Post by phjohnst » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 7:13 PM UTC

btilly wrote: post #108

Brashman wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it's not built into Chrome's search bar means that I will never see it after the 5 minutes I just spent playing with it. I've been searching from my browser, whether Chrome or Firefox, for a long time now.

How long do you think it will be until there are plugins giving you the same feature in Firefox and Chrome?

Marissa Mayer apparently said: "Sometime in the next few months this is something that will be activated in the browsers"

via: http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/08/google-instant-chrome/