[Sigia-l] People thinking like computers (was ROI/Value of Search Engine...)

[Laura Norvig]

I think this is absolutely critical. If the website in question has 
valuable, pertinent content like this it should be highlighted or be 
at the top of the search results. Many of the examples that have been 
given in this discussion are ones where the user might have been 
better off browsing than searching, and the search results could 
gently suggest that.

Boniface gave examples such as:

I went to amazon.com, selected "computers", then entered "laptops"
into the search box

Let's face it, there are users out there who aren't going to take the 
time to navigate to the "computer" section first. They are going to 
type "laptops" straight into the handy "search all products" box on 
Amazon's home page. (I just tested this out and Amazon actually 
handles this OK. But it makes me long for the days when they just 
sold books.)

-Laura



At 12:31 PM -0500 2/9/03, Christopher Fahey [askrom] wrote:
>    - If a user types "DVD player" into a search field at an online
>electronics store, and it returns 400+ results, then the results page
>should offer some added assistance (for example, it might be a "DVD
>Buyer's Guide" page)