5 ms·

The Billion Dollar Line of JavaScript: document.f.q.focus();

25 points by nreece 19y ago

gaika 19y ago
I bet you found it on jaanix :) Congrats!
- nreece 19y ago
  Actually I did :) Nice site you got there mate.
TheTarquin 19y ago
That's really cool. It's amazing the profound effect that little UI tweaks can have. Not only in the sense that it makes software a better tool, but also in that something as simple as focusing on a textbox encourages users to use that tool in a certain way. In this case, a way that makes Google money by the bushel-full.
aston 19y ago
'Cause Google was the first company to ever think of putting the cursor in the only input[type=text] on the page onload.
myoung8 19y ago
This was on YC like 3 months ago...
- chengmi 19y ago
  More like 5 months ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=65566 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=65566
ivankirigin 19y ago
Related? 6% of users account for 50% of Ad clicks.
avinashv 19y ago
This article is pretty old, and I've seen it pop up a few times on many of the other social news sites, but that isn't my problem. Something that has always bugged me is some of the ludicrous claims in the article. Take the following: "It is quicker to type “Amazon” into Google and click on the first result than it is to type www.amazon.com into your address bar." No chance. In fact, I am pretty confident my (essentially) computer-illiterate father could type "www." and ".com" faster than he could search, wait for the page to load, move the mouse over to the first result, and click it. I see where Altoft is trying to go with it, but his argument is poorly worded. He means the "large number of users" that don't know much about computers--or so I think he does. I would have liked to see him talk about the integration Google <em>already</em> has with Firefox (type "ebay" into the address bar). I haven't looked into why it happens, but sometimes (like with "ebay") Google defaults to "I'm feeling lucky" results, i.e. it will take you straight to the page, but other times it gives you the search results. "scrable" takes me to a specific webpage, but "scrabble" takes me to the search listings.
- emfle 19y ago
  Not on average. He will make many more errors typing www.amzaon.com than he will typing something resembling amazon well enough for google to find the site.
- Kelevra 19y ago
  Does anyone still type "www" ... ever? I think Firefox just tries several common TLDs when it can't resolve a name, i.e., when you type "ebay", it tries "ebay.com", "ebay.org", "ebay.net", etc. No integration with Google required. That's why "ebay" gets you to "ebay.com" and "slashdot" gets you to "slashdot.org", but "del.icio" doesn't go to "del.icio.us", and "last" doesn't go to "last.fm" even though those are the #1 Google results for "del.icio" and "last".
  - anon 19y ago
    Actually, I often find that I typed "ww." because Firefox is not responsive enough after Ctrl+T.
  - 19y ago
wallflower 19y ago
I remember reading about an (pre-AOL+TW) AOL exec boast about those promotional boxes that show-up when people login/logoff AOL. He was saying that if he had a box that said 'Click here to pay $10 for absolutely nothing - that a percentage of their customers would click on it'
anon 19y ago
I hope the "next HTML" has a way to do it declaratively, so I can disable Javascript.

25 points by nreece 19y ago

gaika 19y ago

I bet you found it on jaanix :) Congrats!

nreece 19y ago
Actually I did :) Nice site you got there mate.

TheTarquin 19y ago

That's really cool. It's amazing the profound effect that little UI tweaks can have. Not only in the sense that it makes software a better tool, but also in that something as simple as focusing on a textbox encourages users to use that tool in a certain way. In this case, a way that makes Google money by the bushel-full.

aston 19y ago

'Cause Google was the first company to ever think of putting the cursor in the only input[type=text] on the page onload.

myoung8 19y ago

This was on YC like 3 months ago...

chengmi 19y ago
More like 5 months ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=65566 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=65566

ivankirigin 19y ago

Related? 6% of users account for 50% of Ad clicks.

avinashv 19y ago

This article is pretty old, and I've seen it pop up a few times on many of the other social news sites, but that isn't my problem. Something that has always bugged me is some of the ludicrous claims in the article. Take the following: "It is quicker to type “Amazon” into Google and click on the first result than it is to type www.amazon.com into your address bar." No chance. In fact, I am pretty confident my (essentially) computer-illiterate father could type "www." and ".com" faster than he could search, wait for the page to load, move the mouse over to the first result, and click it. I see where Altoft is trying to go with it, but his argument is poorly worded. He means the "large number of users" that don't know much about computers--or so I think he does. I would have liked to see him talk about the integration Google <em>already</em> has with Firefox (type "ebay" into the address bar). I haven't looked into why it happens, but sometimes (like with "ebay") Google defaults to "I'm feeling lucky" results, i.e. it will take you straight to the page, but other times it gives you the search results. "scrable" takes me to a specific webpage, but "scrabble" takes me to the search listings.

emfle 19y ago
Not on average. He will make many more errors typing www.amzaon.com than he will typing something resembling amazon well enough for google to find the site.
Kelevra 19y ago
Does anyone still type "www" ... ever? I think Firefox just tries several common TLDs when it can't resolve a name, i.e., when you type "ebay", it tries "ebay.com", "ebay.org", "ebay.net", etc. No integration with Google required. That's why "ebay" gets you to "ebay.com" and "slashdot" gets you to "slashdot.org", but "del.icio" doesn't go to "del.icio.us", and "last" doesn't go to "last.fm" even though those are the #1 Google results for "del.icio" and "last".
- anon 19y ago
  Actually, I often find that I typed "ww." because Firefox is not responsive enough after Ctrl+T.
- 19y ago

wallflower 19y ago

I remember reading about an (pre-AOL+TW) AOL exec boast about those promotional boxes that show-up when people login/logoff AOL. He was saying that if he had a box that said 'Click here to pay $10 for absolutely nothing - that a percentage of their customers would click on it'

anon 19y ago

I hope the "next HTML" has a way to do it declaratively, so I can disable Javascript.