

How Google is killing our experience of the web and how we can avoid it  - Major_Grooves
http://hosape.org/

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source99
This website is interesting but I find many flaws in their logic AND I think
it will be almost impossible for them to pull it off. Of the many flaws, the
one that stands out the most is that google's 4 line search result is
useless(my summary of their viewpoint). Quote - "Like most of you, from the
results above I can hardly tell if those websites are relevant to what I am
looking for." If google's results were not the best people wouldn't use them.
I will concede that google tailors the design of their results page so that it
optimizes ad revenue but I won't concede that others have done a better job
with different design. Bing has the exact same layout.

While I do commend their effort I think it will be nearly impossible for them
to compete from an algorithmic and CPU horsepower power point of view. Google
has 15+ years of effort improving on their search algorithm and they have many
billions of dollars worth of infrastructure that enable them to be the best at
what they do.

Could an open source(i.e. Linux) upstart come to compete against an entrenched
market leader(i.e. Microsoft)? No. Linux didn't have the infrastructure
overhead of making a world wide search engine.

~~~
Gpapa
Snippets are a "tradition" used by coders since Search began. From a User
point of view not very useful. Other Search Engines used them as well because
they didnt innovate, they tried to imitate Yahoo and later Google (before that
Natscape Navigator). For me the best example is the iPod click wheel. Who
would have thought that the horizontal tape Recorder Buttons would ever be
replaced...till Steve J. came and did it. Is the same with Search. Snippets
are a tool of the past because the amjority of People think that if a
corporation is doing it, it must be the right thing to do.The first ones to
replace them will overtake Google and the rest. The CPU power is another
Mythos. It can easily be distributed to Servers around the world. As a
Commercial Company is this a nightmare. As a non Profit Network is another
game. Google is interested in building User Profiles to sell them customised
adds. Thats why they need gigantic storage space. We are not going down that
path since we are not going to sell anything.We are rethinking Search from
scratch without commercial thoughts in the back of our heads. And to our
surprise we are finding many flaws. What we are proposing already existed but
didnt survive because they were innovations ahead of their time. Now the
Technology is here. Every day I am forced to use Windows 8, I curse the day
Microsoft took out of Business all the better OS products in the 90ies. What
worries me the most is the fact that the Linus Torvalds coder Generation is
almost gone and one day we all will regret leting Google take over WWW.

------
dragonwriter
While I agree that the the Google search experience could probably be better
than it is, I find most of the proposed UI changes in the linked post to be
absolutely horrible, _especially_ the idea of "render the target page in a
frame with scrollbars on the search results page so I can 'navigate around'
the page while staying on the results page".

Dear God, if I want to see the whole target page while keeping the SERP open,
I'll just open the link in a new tab.

~~~
Gpapa
The trend in webdesign is going toward parallax Scrolling. Simply because
Scrolling is nicer and faster then klicken on menues. At HOSAPE Search, the
scrollbars are only meant for you to scroll down the landing page (following
the trend). Once you klick on the page itself (after knowing for sure it is
the right Website you were after), the Website will open on a new browser
window as usual. We are planning a prototype so People can test it live!

~~~
dragonwriter
> The trend in webdesign is going toward parallax Scrolling.

Is it? AFAICT, the "infinite scroll" trend was all the rage a couple years
ago, but has significantly moderated since then, with a number of properties
that have adopted it reverting to more traditional designs, and a lot of the
feeling that it was the right way to do web design _in general_ rather than a
technique that is useful and appropriate in certain narrow circumstances
fading.

> At HOSAPE Search, the scrollbars are only meant for you to scroll down the
> landing page

If that is the case, you may want to work on clarifying the language and
examples in your promotional materials -- the image with a website preview
with scrollbars framed by the text:

 _But there is even more to that. Not only Google could give us more
information on the website, it could actually show a preview of the website in
a window like this:

[sample image]

With the help of scroll bars you could maneuver through the website without
leaving the Search page and save time with unnecessary clicks._

Certainly gave _me_ the impression that the scrollbars are used for navigating
around the rendered preview of the target website. Part of the problem may be
the ambiguous use of the phrase "the website" to refer _both_ to the landing
page _and_ to the individual target pages.

