I Yahoo’ed Before I Googled (Response #8)

Before I ever googled, I was searching by keywords onAOL, and when I found out about Yahoo! I became a search fiend and I also became a fan. Then came Google. In the beginning I did not find it to be so interesting because it did not have the same content Yahoo! had. The page had no advertisements, no links, articles, or banners. The only similarity is the search box. But then I saw “I’m feeling lucky” as a search option. That was intriguing. From then on, I began googling and I never stopped. I never looked back because as I came to realize, the “noise” Yahoo! contains takes away from my ultimate goal, which is to find what I’m looking for. After reading the article “Boxes and Arrows: Defining Information Architecture Deliverables,” by Christina Wodke, I concluded that Google most likely utilized the conceptual Model.

Wodke writes:

“ User experience guru Don Norman defined three types of models that occur when creating a product

Implementation models
Conceptual models
Mental Models.

The implementation model is how the product works from a technical point of view. The mental model is how the user thinks the product works. The conceptual model is the message the designer or IA sends to the user about how the product works.

As a user, I find that I can clearly identify what the website is for because of its content. The search box in the middle of the page and the identifiable search buttons make it easy for me to search. Without the visual distractions advertisements, banners, articles and such on the page, Google focuses on my intent to search. The designer or IA visibly represents a site for searching and anyone whose goal is to search will truly appreciate the design. I believe it is a successful search engine because the straightforwardness of the site gets rid of any confusion that can arise even if the user is not an Internet wiz.

The article “Long Tails and Short Queries An Interview with Amanda Spink” explains the “complex search behaviors” of users. Spink writes, “ The Google and CNN text boxes may be a little bigger or longer than average, but not substantially longer. How about a structured textbox, like an electronic library catalog interface? How about a textbox that is 3 inches by 3 inches with lots of space for people to express themselves? If you give people a small text box, you’re probably constraining their expression of their information problem. People need to be feel they should play around with search and experiment” (Citation). Since user search behavior is quite hard to predict I agree with Spink’s idea to have designers experiment more with search techniques. A search box’s size and placement on the webpage and the simple design of the website is a great start for a search engine but getting the better results on the results page is even better.

Personally, when it comes to searches, I can say I Google a lot. It may not be as attractive and flash-y as your Yahoo! and MSN, but it gets the job done swiftly and easily.

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