[Sigia-l] Google's new home page

[Jonathan Baker-Bates]

On Thu, 2009-12-03 at 20:15 -0500, Jayson Elliot wrote:
> Of the total number of search results generated by Google, a significant
> portion are initiated somewhere other than Google.com 

Citation needed, but I take your point.

> If they do move their mouse, the links appear as a result of a user action,
> which is less confusing than if they were to appear on their own, 
> 

OK, but this is nearly 2010, with (I would guess) something like 80% of
people who use that page having perhaps five or more years of web
exposure. Are you seriously saying that there is a demographic out there
that would actually be confused by the presence of a few links on an
otherwise comparatively deserted page? I don't doubt there is such a
thing as levels of sophistication amongst Internet users, but ... are
there not limits?

> The prime reason that I don't see a problem with the "distraction" of the
> extra links appearing is that the typical mouse path a user will travel from
> address bar to Google search bar has no links in its way, meaning there is a
> minimal chance of accidental clicks or cognitive interrupts.

Not sure what you mean. I don't think anyone's saying the extra links
appearing is a distraction (if anything it's the opposite). But in any
case the links are revealed by mouse movement. They appear under the
address bar so that typical mouse path you described does have links "in
its way". I would think the chance of a cognitive interrupt in this case
are vanishingly close to zero even without fancy fade-ins on mouse
movements though. Love the phrase "cognitive interrupt" by the way -
must use it more often.

> If you think of Google as an application, rather than a web site (which is
> becoming a rather academic distinction as time goes on), it makes perfect
> sense for it to have only a single option on its home page.
> 

Can you explain that? What is the relationship between visual or
functional simplicity and the execution of the UI?

> If anything, it's a wonderful middle finger to Microsoft's Bing, with their
> "more is more" philosophy of home pages.
> 

You know, I think you just nailed it. Maybe that's *all* it is. One
pointless dogma slap against another. And here we are wasting time
discussing it because we think it might be about usability. If anyone
from Google subscribes to this list, they must be laughing like drains
right now.

Sorry about that everyone.

Jonathan