[Sigia-l] www.live.com search - a missed opportunity?

[Kenneth Bryson]

>>> "Alexander Johannesen" <alexander.johannesen at gmail.com> 3/8/2006
8:30 PM >>>
On 3/9/06, Stewart Dean <stew8dean at hotmail.com> wrote:
> For those who havnt seen it Microsoft have launched a Web 2.0 style
search
> at www.live.com 


Before we all feel like we need to dis live.com (if only because MS
can't out-google google), I'll chip in that I found at least one goog
thing to like about the beta release.

I like the fact, and I think it adds to the user experience, that you
can scroll through ALL the retreived results withougt having to clik on
endless 1|2|3|4|5....N links to see results not listed on the first
page.  With this implementation all the results are on the first page. 
This is using AJAX as it should be done, loading information as it is
needed rather than forcing the user to click on something everytime more
info is needed.

My problem with live.com would be it's extreme lack of proper
labelling.  Some well placed text would go a long way to help the user
understand (before they start clicking around) what the various widgets
do.  The scrolling flicker and the horizontal thingy could use some real
descriptive names beyond what I just called them.

All around, there are some good ideas here, just a poor
implementation.

-kb