Why not rename it gooogle while you’re at it
Very Bad
Google’s strength has always laid in their user experience: Fast load times and a dead-simple interface made for an irresistible search engine. But the need for growth has pushed them to compromise the very qualities that make them attractive in the first place. My search results now include rating and commenting components, two features that sound like they may be good additions. But instead, these new features are bad for 3 reasons.
- The non-text elements on my screen just increased tenfold. Previously the Google logo, a search bar and possibly a Google checkout graphic were the only graphic intrusions that cost me load time (and cost Google serve time) or added elements to the visual presentation. The ranking and commenting added 30 graphic elements. Even worse, these new elements introduce colors and behaviors new to Google search. They all have the appearance of translucence, a design tactic not used previously on their search result. They also have non-uniform behaviours: Rolling over the up-arrow generates a green rollover, while the ‘x’ and comments bubble just get a darker grey.
- By introducing an explicit ranking system, Google is introduced overt influence into their ranking system. Part of the strength of most search engines is the ease of use - anyone can enter a phrase and get back a relevant result. There is no require for a survey about your previous experience with similar searches. There is no financial cost for results. There is just a question and an answer. But now, Google is fostering a sense that you need to rank their responses to get better results. Perhaps they are right and that will lead to better search results (which is not a given) - where is a user’s incentive to substantially increase their investment for marginally better searches? Who is willing to go from a one-click search to a search improved 1% at the cost of 10 clicks? The answer, of course, is web surfers that have already migrated to other niche-search engines.
- The lack of focus on the comments will provide nothing but noise, further degrading the value of the information on the page. What are the comments for? Am I supposed to comment on the quality of the specific results as they relate to my search? I could just as easily comment on the quality of the result in an objective setting, which has little value in the context of the search results. If I run a search for “funniest Obama joke” (which you’re not allowed to make, remember) I get a mix of videos, new stories and web page in my results. I could also, with these new features, get comments ranging from “This video is hilarious” (content-specific), “This site is so racist” (site-specific), or “A story about a cancelled debate doesn’t help me find a funny joke” (search result-specific). Given the range of likely results, the comments are almost certain to become noise.
Google has gained little with this adjustment, and given the feature release appears to be limited to select users right now, it’s unlikely the add-ons will make it to Google proper unadjusted.