Google is the biggest website in the world, and also happens to have the most basic, spartan layout of any web page (with the sole exception of ZomboCom, which is even more genius). But despite this, it also has a royally aggravating design flaw, which manages to trip me up at frequent intervals. It happens maybe 30% of the time I’m on the site (which feels like 150%). I’d like to take 5 minutes to point this out — maybe someone else has experienced the same thing.
It’s the search suggestion tool. It’s the only moving part on the site, yet when it activates, it covers the search button. And it does it with impeccable timing: not immediately, which would prompt me to stay on the keyboard and simply hit enter. Not a few seconds later, giving me time to wait for it in case I need it.
No, it pops up in the split second between typing the query and mousing over to the search button, just before I click. So when I search for “Keiser Career College” and move to hit the search button, what pops directly between my mouse and the search button is “Keiser Career College Miami Lakes,” which immediately becomes my new search query, and the subject of the results page that comes up. Grrr.
I realize an easy way of getting around this is to just stick to hitting enter rather than using the primitive mouse device attached to the machine. And I’ve also noticed they recently placed another search button within the suggestion field, at the bottom, to give those button-clicking users a backup click option. But as useful as all of that is, sometimes I (and other users, I imagine) am just in a mouse mood. I want to click, not tap, and all this fancy-pants modding is impeding my click flow.
Possible explanation: They’re trying to subtly ween people off of clicking in order to eventually eliminate the button entirely and move strategically toward total Zombo simplicity. That I completely understand.
Update: They fixed it. It pops up as you’re typing now, whereby it can’t sneak up on you. Very nice.
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