3 ms·

A process which is unnecessarily cumbersome. If DDG wanted people to use it, they'd make the top five or so bang switches clickable. Click and it redoes the cur

A process which is unnecessarily cumbersome. If DDG wanted people to use it, they'd make the top five or so bang switches clickable. Click and it redoes the current search pretended by a bang.

StavrosK 7y ago
Ooh, seeing "if they wanted people to use it" and "clickable" in the same sentence gave me feelings. To me, having to take my hands off the keyboard is the exact opposite of usable.
- torstenvl 7y ago
  Okay... If you scroll with your keyboard, how do you get back to the search field more quickly than with the mouse? If you scroll with the mouse, how is a one-click solution with the device you already have in your hand not more efficient? BL: DDG makes bang switches unwieldy. They should fix that. EDIT: The / key is DDG's shortcut for going back to the search box. That helps a little. Doesn't mean that a clickable button wouldn't help usability a ton. Additionally, since editing a search is probably the most common use case (rather than replacing the search terms entirely), going to the search box should start with the cursor at the beginning or end of the box, rather than with the whole field highlighted.
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    I use Vimium, I don't scroll, I just press the letter of the field I want to get to. However, pressing the / key will take you back to the search box no matter where on the page you are.
    - torstenvl 7y ago
      If you have a list of search results, and not all of them are on screen, it is necessary to scroll. I don't see what Vimium has to do with it, other than using j and k instead of the arrow keys. In any case, certainly you can recognize that a huge proportion of people scroll with a mouse, n'est-ce pas?
      - StavrosK 7y ago
        Sure, but on the other hand I recognize that DDG might not want to signal that its results are so useless that you need a prominent Google fallback right on the page. For me, it's not even the case, I rarely search with Google and I've been using DDG for years.
        torstenvl 7y ago
        I suppose I get that. However, allowing the established player as an easy fallback when you're the underdog usually helps adoption rather than hurting it. Look at Mac sales after Intel/BootCamp/Parallels. VirtualPC existed before but it wasn't easy or fast. When it became almost seamless to fall back to Windows when necessary, more people were willing to take the leap.
    - bussierem 7y ago
      So because you use Vim to navigate the web, you think DDG shouldn't add better mouse UX that will most likely increase their conversion rate and make the site better for everyone else?
      - StavrosK 7y ago
        No, because I use Vim to navigate the web I think the mouse is less usable. I think DDG shouldn't add clickable Google redirects because they aren't that necessary and are an antipattern.

A process which is unnecessarily cumbersome. If DDG wanted people to use it, they'd make the top five or so bang switches clickable. Click and it redoes the current search pretended by a bang.

StavrosK 7y ago

Ooh, seeing "if they wanted people to use it" and "clickable" in the same sentence gave me feelings. To me, having to take my hands off the keyboard is the exact opposite of usable.

torstenvl 7y ago
Okay... If you scroll with your keyboard, how do you get back to the search field more quickly than with the mouse? If you scroll with the mouse, how is a one-click solution with the device you already have in your hand not more efficient? BL: DDG makes bang switches unwieldy. They should fix that. EDIT: The / key is DDG's shortcut for going back to the search box. That helps a little. Doesn't mean that a clickable button wouldn't help usability a ton. Additionally, since editing a search is probably the most common use case (rather than replacing the search terms entirely), going to the search box should start with the cursor at the beginning or end of the box, rather than with the whole field highlighted.
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I use Vimium, I don't scroll, I just press the letter of the field I want to get to. However, pressing the / key will take you back to the search box no matter where on the page you are.
  - torstenvl 7y ago
    If you have a list of search results, and not all of them are on screen, it is necessary to scroll. I don't see what Vimium has to do with it, other than using j and k instead of the arrow keys. In any case, certainly you can recognize that a huge proportion of people scroll with a mouse, n'est-ce pas?
    - StavrosK 7y ago
      Sure, but on the other hand I recognize that DDG might not want to signal that its results are so useless that you need a prominent Google fallback right on the page. For me, it's not even the case, I rarely search with Google and I've been using DDG for years.
      - torstenvl 7y ago
        I suppose I get that. However, allowing the established player as an easy fallback when you're the underdog usually helps adoption rather than hurting it. Look at Mac sales after Intel/BootCamp/Parallels. VirtualPC existed before but it wasn't easy or fast. When it became almost seamless to fall back to Windows when necessary, more people were willing to take the leap.
  - bussierem 7y ago
    So because you use Vim to navigate the web, you think DDG shouldn't add better mouse UX that will most likely increase their conversion rate and make the site better for everyone else?
    - StavrosK 7y ago
      No, because I use Vim to navigate the web I think the mouse is less usable. I think DDG shouldn't add clickable Google redirects because they aren't that necessary and are an antipattern.