

Google Chrome Uses the Scrollbar to Display Search Results - babyshake
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2008/09/19/using-the-scrollbar-to-display-information/

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PieSquared
Wait... If a user doesn't notice a feature (when it's clearly supposed to be
noticed), doesn't that mean it's placement is slightly sub-optimal?

(Although I personally do like the placement, and the author clearly does too;
just from Google's perspective, isn't it bad that the user doesn't immediately
notice it?)

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there
if it's a critical feature i would say it'd be a problem, but this is
something new. if you notice it, use it, if not, you're no worse off than you
were before.

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goodness
The first I saw this feature was in a 1992 paper:

<http://smg.media.mit.edu/classes/SocialVis03/editWear.pdf>

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seiji
What I've wanted is a big red line in the scrollbar where an article stops and
comments begin.

I judge the length of an article by the scrollbar size, but when an article is
four paragraphs followed by 800 comments on the same page my "should I take
the time to read this" measurement gets thrown off.

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gojomo
Eclipse IDE does the same thing, putting little colored ticks in scrollbars to
indicate things like:

* locations of last term searched

* other references to same variable currently highlighted

* TODO comments

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goodness
Not quite _in_ the scrollbar. But beside it.

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litewulf
I think chrome is marginally better (har har) because it saves like 10
horizontal pixels.

One of my computers is a tiny netbook, and let me tell you, saving 10 pixels
is what I worry about all day long.

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royalpineapple
colloquy does this as well

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MikeCapone
I like it.

