we are: London

After reading an interesting article on the BBC I started thinking about search and the existing styles and methods that we use to find information. I have had the luxury to spend some time playing with Google Goggles and I have to say I’m impressed.

The Google Goggles app allows users to take images of many items inlcuding popular landmarks and find search results based on the image

Google Goggles is an application available on Google’s Android operating system that allows users to search the internet based on input from their phones camera. If I take a photograph of a book,  a computer keyboard or even a bottle of Heinz ketchup it will return related search results and images. It’s ability to do this is quite astonishing (apart from of course every time I try to show off to my friends).


Could search methods such as this be a first glimpse of many new search methods of the future. Google certainly have a good pedigree in the field and I am looking towards them for any glimpse into future trends and innovations. Google stripped search down to it’s bare bones with their simple and clean text search. Will they now break down the barriers associated with this search style to create more innovative and natural search methods?  Methods they are currently quite successfully developing on Android such as searching by voice, searching by handwriting recognition and the Google Goggles searching by visual input certainly point towards this.

Mobile, usability design, user interface Internet, Nexus One, Search

The site

The new site, Democracy Live, launched by the BBC primarily focuses on providing users with live and recorded footage of the UK and European parliaments. The site is comprehensive and easy to use allowing everyone from political experts to the politically baffled to find out what is happening in the parliamentary world.

The hidden gem

The site however contains a hidden gem. Containing large amounts of video, search functionality is not an area where I expected the site to shine. The BBC however have proved me wrong. Speech to text software is used to make video content fully searchable.

When I search for the word labour I am not provided with a list of videos tagged labour or with labour in the title. A search provides me with a list of videos that contain a mention of labour within the speech of the video. I can access a list of every mention, containing a link directly to that point of time within the recording and a quote of what was said. This functionality is of course not available for live video but it brings a whole new dimension to search within the site.

The search results also present the user with other useful features. The user is presented with related political representatives, refinement options and related content. These are useful for not only finding specific information but also for exploring information related to your search term.

But what does it mean?

Proving such a search facility really adds to the site’s worth. As more footage is archived it will become a great research tool for anyone working in or interested in politics. By instantly searching the speech of video it removes the need for hours spent trawling through the footage. Users are provided with direct access to the information they want creating a much greater experience.

user interface Internet, Search, usability

Can Microsoft challenge Google?

Crosby

Having just watched the video for Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, I am rather impressed. Bing seems to cover off many of the actions that a normal punter would make after clicking on a number of links.

For example, search for a flight to London from Hamburg and not only will it find you the cheapest flights but also show when the best time to buy them is, guaranteeing the lowest fare.

Left navigation, back with a vengeance

The next trick in bings box of magic is a left navigation that makes moving around different content quick and easy. So searching for a digital camera, say a Nikon D90, Bing brings back popular searches along with links to reviews, shops, pictures and even manuals, all arranged in a neat left nav.

It’s got a real time suggestion engine so a nice list of drop down choices appear as you type, similar to Google. Maps, images, video and other non-text content seem to fit within the search window nicely too, so searching becomes a lot more visual.

Snake oil or Google beater?

Our vote is still our here are we are:london, mainly due to the fact that until it’s launched for real, it would be foolhardy to judge. But Google’s killer USP was it’s speed and size, as a tech colleague of mine pointed out seven or eight years ago, “it’s (Google) got millions of web pages saved already that you can search through”.

What’s important about this statement is that Google were solving a problem that most had never realised was actually a problem. So will Microsoft’s attempt at improving the search experience be enough to topple Google and will they have a simple and effective paid search service that can be used by massive firms or individuals to the same ends?

Time will tell, but in a lot of ways I hope it is as good as the hype, mainly due to the fact that we have been working on a travel search system that is very similar and will therefore hopefully see the average web customer happy to search in a whole new way.

Uncategorized future, Microsoft, Search, usability

Google SEO goes usability crazy

The tactics of SEO and Google are changing fast and it seems that Google is actively measuring usability as a way of ranking websites.

We have been wondering why Google has been using industry sector benchmark sites and it could be that these will be used to build up an ideal “time to complete” scale that is applied across all sites.

The information is no doubt being aggregated through Google search bar along with sites that opt in through their stats and will be used to shape the future of SEO.

It has been reported that site who’s “time on site after search” is improved also see their natural search ranking improving. This basically means you need to get people through to their end goal as effectively as possible, which is not the same as as quickly as possible.

All of this simply equates to a robust approach to user centred design or usability as we know it.

If you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch for resources, details and help. Just email chris@cadinteractive.com

usability design, user centred design Google, Search, SEO