

Simplicity - robmnl

Something funny just happened that I wanted to share.<p>You've probably seen Yahoo's new Search Assistant. If not, check it out.<p>Well, I thought it's a pretty neat feature.<p>Until I just saw a young child use it, a regular Yahoo user, who was baffled at the recommendation popup and what it was for, thinking he <i>had</i> to click on one of the recommendations.<p>There goes the actual product, the search engine, out of the window. :)<p>It is soo easy to build in too many features. KISS
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chadboyda
Wow, thanks for sharing that observation! What a gem of insight into how easy
it is to cross that gray line of usability.

Just a week ago I was watching the Berkely course videos from SIMS 141 on
YouTube. This one <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYbuDzvWr4s> featured Dr.
Daniel E. Rose from Yahoo! talking about User Experience Issues in Web Search.

Part of the video, which was recorded 2 years ago, he talks about some of
their UI research and how they believe they can improve the interface a lot,
primarily focusing on keyword suggestions to help people remember what they
were really looking for when they might only remember part of it or something
related. Ironically enough a day or two after I watched that video they
launched this new feature.

Maybe they should have spent more time observing users. :)

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DanielBMarkham
How about those sites that have the underlined key words. Let your mouse stray
across one accidentally and wham! There's a little popup advertisement related
to the keyword.

That drives me nuts. You know, there's something to be said for a plain
vanilla site that does the one thing I want it to do, and nothing more.

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GammaStats
That gives me a great idea! What about adding sound clips to those little ad
popups? Would that not be the best?

I bet there is going to be a startup sometime that does that...

It could be called: ADnnoyance 2.0

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DanielBMarkham
Better hush up, or somebody will throw development dollars at you. If there's
one thing I know that can get funding, it's finding more and more ways to
shove advertising dollars down people's throats.

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GammaStats
Well, I suppose I could edit the comment but the cat is out of the bag now.

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rrival
As long as we can get ads for X10 involved somehow, I'm in.

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GammaStats
Are you suggesting sending ads through power lines or are you suggesting that
another ad could be fit into the cluttered mass that is X10.com?

As far as sending ads through power lines, thats a great idea too. Your
toaster could tell you, via prompting by the power company, that Folgers is
the best coffee to compliment your current toast selections.

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DanielBMarkham
E-gads, man, there's a startup idea straight from heck -- using power lines to
transmit advertisements to all the electrical appliances in your home.

Use the toaster and have it sing an advertisement for pop-tarts. The
refrigerator would remind you that Jenny Craig was having a sale this week.
You electric toothbrush would remind you that your local dentist is having a
sale on tooth-whitening, as well as reminding you to floss. Turn the light on
in the bedroom and have the lightswitch tell you about Viagra. And you don't
even want to know what the bidet is trying to sell.

I think I just lost all desire for smart appliances.

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rrival
Maybe you don't remember the pop-under x10 web cam ads of the dot-bomb? =)

