Google Instant Search. Instant Annoyance?
Disagreeing with Google is liking disagreeing with Apple. You're putting your reputation at risk. But I feel obliged to take the plunge as I'm feeling a little irritated with it.
In a nutshell, I think Google Instant Search is an instant annoyance. Yes, it'll save me a precious few milliseconds and the real time feedback will occasionally improve my search querying. I'll also enjoy the fact that I don't have to press the return button on my keyboard after entering a term. But those benefits come at a significant cost that may not be immediately apparent to everyone. Here are the critical reasons why I do not like Google Instant Search.
- Google Instant Flash. Too much like Times Square. It's frightening but when I first started playing around with Google Instant Search I was reminded of all those intro flash animations that we used to see on websites a decade ago. I begin typing and the page flashes to a results screen. I add another letter and it flashes to different search results. This "Times Square feel" is too much for me. That alone is reason enough to tun it off especially if you do a lot of searches and a lot of multitasking. It is a user experience irritant and arguably something against the very principles of simplicity that Google has taught us about.
- Google Instant Distractions. Preventing task completion. I use the web for entertainment but also to do some serious business. And searching on Google is a critical piece of that. I don't go to the search box to browse. I go with keyword(s) or a few questions on my mind. And then I type in my query. With Google Instant Search as I begin typing in the query I am immediately distracted from the task at hand.
Here's how. Imagine I am looking to for information on "Wines of Southern France." As I start typing I see 3 search results screens flash by which have absolutely nothing to do with wines of southern France (unless you count the weather in Manhattan, Wikipedia and WinRar as being related to it). Then I get two general wine related results screens before I actually get the results screen I really want. It is hard to avoid looking at those interim results and they are useless for me. With the old Google search, I'd type in my query and the first set of results I'd see would be most applicable to me. Google Instant Search is searching for ways to distract me with this feature and it will distract me at times! - Google Instant Long Tail Death. Hurting the long tail. I fundamentally believe that the heart and soul of the web lies in the long tail of websites. With Google Instant Search, I'm tacitly encouraged to focus on just the first page of a search results. There's so much else to distract me before I scroll down to the bottom of a page and click the next page link. In effect, Google Instant Search privileges the largest, most trafficked and most SEO friendly on the websites at the cost of the long tail. That's not good for the long tail and nor is it for the future of the Internet.
Another dimension to this issue is best expressed by Kevin Marks who said, "The normative influence of Google just got a lot stronger" implying that what we take for granted as an assumption regarding a particular topic will be driven more by Google. We won't click further than what Google tells is most important. Scary stuff.
So not surprisingly, I'm going to turn off the Google Instant Search feature. Do I think most people will also turn it off? Probably not. They'll get used to it and will accept it as a default search user experience. But I do believe it'll hurt overall searching with more distractions, less engagement with the long tail of the web and a weakening of the user experience. When Google innovates I expect a lot more from them and they've let me down especially by compromising the user experience.
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