4 ms·
Good riddance. This was a marketing feature more than anything else so google could boast about how fast their search engine was. However, it always had tons o
by Coincoin 9y ago
Good riddance.
This was a marketing feature more than anything else so google could boast about how fast their search engine was. However, it always had tons of usability problems for no added benefit to the user, especially when refining a previous search, or trying to retype some funky word you found in the results.
- puzzle 9y agoYes, part of it was marketing, but there were benefits, too, e.g. for slow typers, which of course do not abound in this corner of the Internet.
- johansch 9y agoIn my experience these slow typists also tend to look at the keyboard while they are typing - not at the screen. Thereby completely negating the benefit for this group of people. I guess that for the intersection of slow typists who look at the screen while typing, Instant Search is useful. But how big is this intersection really?
- praneshp 9y agoMy sample set of 1 (mom) types char, then looks at screen on loop.
- johansch 9y agoThat must be even more excruciating to watch than my mom, who types the entire search string while looking at the keyboard. If I try to hint and say, "look, there's an autocompletion thing that has already guessed correctly what you are painfully trying to write, why don't you click the top suggestion?" she just shushes me away (she's busy concentrating on typing). So I have stopped doing that, and am now just resigned to sit and wait, whenever these things happen.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- puzzle 9y agoYou're right to some degree, but there were lots of user studies done. It was a net positive. One of the amusing things was that users would follow the instant results without necessarily being consciously aware of them. I.e., when describing their interactions with prototypes, only a few noticed and pointed out that they were getting results without pressing Enter, yet a larger number clicked on them. It had to be pointed out to them, at which point they would often go "whoa". I remember a few non technical users who really raved about it.
- aoeusnth1 9y agoFor super slow typists, they don't trust their ability to hit the correct key, so they look up frequently to check that they don't have a typo.
- bdamm 9y agoWhen I fractured my collar bone in a bicycle accident I lost the use of my right arm for 6 weeks to a sling while the bones healed. So I bought a "half keyboard", a curious but functional contraption that uses the space bar to invert the left side of the keyboard into the right side of the keyboard, so that I could do full touch typing with only my left hand. The irony is it took about 4 weeks to get up to a useable speed. I kept using it for almost two years afterwards because it was so nice to have a trackball in my right hand and complete control of the keyboard with my left hand, and not have to ever move either hand. The main point is that during this time I was a slow typist, and looking at the screen while doing it. It was rather agonizing. Deep sympathies for disabled individuals was developed during that time.
- pimlottc 9y agoThat sounds pretty interesting, but egads, why in the world are half-keyboards so bloody expensive! And this from someone who's bought a few fancy ergonomic keyboards in his day. But it seems to me that a half-keyboard could be a pretty good ergonomic option since you wouldn't have to worry about find a keyboard with the right fixed angles for two arms.
- cwilkes 9y agoAuto suggest helps slow typers or people that aren't sure of how to spell way more than displaying a hodge podge of results that change quickly.