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"Typing the name of a popular site is unambiguous and it should redirect the user to that site." Firefox has done this for a very long time. It uses Google. Mo

by samdk 17y ago

"Typing the name of a popular site is unambiguous and it should redirect the user to that site." Firefox has done this for a very long time. It uses Google. Most other modern web browsers behave similarly.

elblanco 17y ago
The problem the post (and the post this one references) is making is that google is an ambiguous solution. A search for "Facebook login" likely brings up the login page for Facebook as the first hit, but it's not guaranteed. If, for some reason, the rankings change, and something else happens to end up at the top of the rankings, that's where it goes to. The users (and you) are behaving as if the semantics of that behavior patterns mean "take me to the Facebook page". Firefox & Google on the other hand uses the semantics of this to mean "go to the first ranked result of the search". It's like going to a vending machine to get a candy bar (Snickers). The one you want happens to be at "a1". So you insert your money and hit the buttons for "a1". For a year you get the the Snickers bar you wanted. The semantics of "a1" mean "Snickers" to you, and the rest of the office, by this point -- but to the machine "a1" always means "a1". Now, Joe, the vending machine guy decides to restock the machine one day and just so happen to put the Snickers at "b4" and the Pork Rinds at "a1". So the next day you come in to get your mid-afternoon Snickers and you dutifully hit "a1" just as you've trained yourself to do. Because remember, to you "a1" means "Snickers". The machine sees "a1" and thinks to itself "retrieve whatever item is at a1" not "retrieve the Snickers for samdk". You start to eat your Snickers, thinking to yourself "wow Mars Corporation really changed the packaging." You take your first bite and spit it out "WTF!!!! These Snickers are horrible!!!". What I'm proposing is that if Joe the Vending machine guy sees that everyone equates "a1" with "Snickers" then instead of mapping keycodes to positions in the machine, he maps them to particular products. "A1" will always be "Snickers". So even if he moves it to "b4" inside the machine, the mapping of "a1" to "Snickers" still holds and the machine give you what you mean, not what it means.

by samdk 17y ago

elblanco 17y ago

The problem the post (and the post this one references) is making is that google is an ambiguous solution. A search for "Facebook login" likely brings up the login page for Facebook as the first hit, but it's not guaranteed. If, for some reason, the rankings change, and something else happens to end up at the top of the rankings, that's where it goes to. The users (and you) are behaving as if the semantics of that behavior patterns mean "take me to the Facebook page". Firefox & Google on the other hand uses the semantics of this to mean "go to the first ranked result of the search". It's like going to a vending machine to get a candy bar (Snickers). The one you want happens to be at "a1". So you insert your money and hit the buttons for "a1". For a year you get the the Snickers bar you wanted. The semantics of "a1" mean "Snickers" to you, and the rest of the office, by this point -- but to the machine "a1" always means "a1". Now, Joe, the vending machine guy decides to restock the machine one day and just so happen to put the Snickers at "b4" and the Pork Rinds at "a1". So the next day you come in to get your mid-afternoon Snickers and you dutifully hit "a1" just as you've trained yourself to do. Because remember, to you "a1" means "Snickers". The machine sees "a1" and thinks to itself "retrieve whatever item is at a1" not "retrieve the Snickers for samdk". You start to eat your Snickers, thinking to yourself "wow Mars Corporation really changed the packaging." You take your first bite and spit it out "WTF!!!! These Snickers are horrible!!!". What I'm proposing is that if Joe the Vending machine guy sees that everyone equates "a1" with "Snickers" then instead of mapping keycodes to positions in the machine, he maps them to particular products. "A1" will always be "Snickers". So even if he moves it to "b4" inside the machine, the mapping of "a1" to "Snickers" still holds and the machine give you what you mean, not what it means.