[Sigia-l] Google Search Results UI Has Changed?

[Ken Bryson]

<snip>

>
> Then again, does a user really expect a tab to modify
> their existing
> search? or do they expect to be taken to a completely
> different collection
> of stuff, like every other tab on the web will do?
>

I would have to disagree that the Google tabs are lenses rather than
traditional tabs.  If the tabs simply looked at different facets of the same
information space then they would be lenses.  They do not.  They simply
apply the same query to a *different* information space (the directories tab
notwithstanding, ** see below)

Your old amazon example were actually what you purport the google tabs to
be:  lenses trying to act as tabs. They were lenses because they "look at
 different aspects of book data" - different facets of the same information
space.  And it is little wonder they are now gone (that is for the same
reason you decry the google tabs).

They only thing different about the google tabs from regular tabs is the
query it automatically applies to the information space when you click on
the tab (unless you haven't entered a query yet).

Lastly, because:

- the Web search doesn't query images, groups, or news stories
- the images search doesn't query web, groups, or news stories
- the groups search ..... etc.

they are not different queries on the same thing (unless you consider the
web universe as an indivisible entity (Derek?)). Thus they are tabs, not
lenses.

** directories tab notwithstanding addendum:

Of course, having said all that, google does manage to mess with things abit
with the directories tab in that does actually act like a lens....

-kb


> Would it be worth using a completely different widget for
> separating the
> concepts "these are different ways of seeing the same idea/item" and
> "these are different things altogether"? For a short while, Amazon
> experimented with using tabs within tabs to allow people to look at
> different aspects of book data: the reviews, the product metadata, the
> pictures from inside the book. The design is gone now, but it was a
> perfect example of tabs being used as lenses."
>
> And if it is worth separating lens behavior from tab
> behavior, what would
> such a widget look like?
>
>
>
>
>
> > Regarding Donna Maurer's remarks:
> >
> > "I wonder whether people will miss/not see 'images', 'news' hiding
> > up the top there."
> >
> > Google's tabs are so unlike real-world tabs and so visually
> indistinctive
> > that it took me forever to notice them (well, I believe, at
> least many
> > months--it was difficult to ascertain by asking around),
> even though I use
> > Google daily. So, in my view, these options were always pretty well
> > hidden.
> > ;-)
> >
> > "It does look like the google directory is gone from the
> example - this I
> > would miss as I use it a bit."
> >
> > Once I finally did notice the tabs, I also enjoyed using
> the Directory, so
> > I
> > hope it isn't going away.
> >
> > Pabini Gabriel-Petit
> > Spirit Softworks
> > www.spiritsoftworks.com
> >
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