[Sigia-l] RE:Why label Best Bets in the hit list?

[rich at richardwiggins.com]

This is an important question, I think.  My answer is because it's important
to identify for the user what they are looking at, even if 98% of users
don't care.  We're identifying that the first results you see were picked by
humans, not by the arbitrary whims of robots.

Your point that if the human-chosen results are set off too prominently,
some users will dismiss them and go to the robotic hits, is very well taken.

To me, there is still a labeling obligation.  Just as Google labels
"Sponsored Links" but does so subtly, labeling what the federated results
are by type is the right thing to do.

/rich



On Mon, 30 September 2002, "PeterV" wrote:

> 
> Why do we want to indicate the way these specific results were achieved?
> 
> I think in most cases (assuming a non-search-expert user), integrating
> best bets with the rest of the search results (why not just put them on
> top?) is the best way to go. The interface problem is part of this: many
> "best bets" implementations present the results separately, and
I have
> the feeling these results often get skipped because they don't *look*
> like search results. I know I do that. 
> PeterV
> <a
href="http://mail.richardwiggins.com//jump/http://poorbuthappy.com/ease">http://poorbuthappy.com/ease</a>
> <a
href="http://mail.richardwiggins.com//jump/http://petervandijck.net">http://petervandijck.net</a> 

_____________________________________________________

Richard Wiggins
Writing, Speaking, and Consulting on the Internet
rich at richardwiggins.com  http://richardwiggins.com