Google Removes Translated Pages Search Tool

Posted on by Greg

Yet more advanced search features are being killed off by Google. With the move of the search tools from the left margin to the top, and requiring an extra click to get to most of them, Google has been removing those that get little use.  We used to have a full translated search function at Google, but the “Translated Foreign Pages” search tool option gave some of that functionality until recently. As reported at Search Engine Land, Google has not removed that drop down menu choice. Last month, the “similar pages” function had been removed for a similar reason, lack of use.

When you make advanced search features harder to get to, is it any wonder that usage drops? Google offers that if you use Chrome, you can still translate pages, but it is not the same.

Posted in Google

New Google UI Experiment: Black Bar to Apps

Posted on by Greg

screenshotNow that I am no longer seeing the lost preview Google user interface (UI) experiment in Firefox (and I saw that for several weeks), I am now seeing a different on in Chrome. This is another experiment that removes the black bar from the top, but unlike the one spotted in March that gave no other options for getting to Gmail and other Google  services, the one I’m seeing adds several links to the top right: G+, Gmail, and “Apps” along with an Apps logo. Click the logo or link to see a list of some of the most popular Google services (the visible ones in the black bar).

The Google databases and services under the “More” link in the current black bar are not available separately, and instead of just available under the “Even more” link. After running a search, only the Apps logo still shows up at the top right, and clicking on it brings up the same options. However, clicking any of those options does not pass along the search but just goes to the home page for the service. The one exception is the Images links which at least pastes the query into the search box.

I first saw this yesterday when signed out in Chrome. Signing in to a Google account does not make much difference beyond showing my G+ head shot instead of the Sign in button. I can’t say that I care much for this experiment since it makes it still makes it more difficult to switch to other services, especially other Google databases, unless they happen to show up in the search results. Google Scholar is still nowhere to be seen, but it does potentially show a continued effort to find a more touch-friendly interface even for computer users.

Posted in Google, User Interface

Searcher Behavior

Posted on by Greg

A new study from iAquire and SurveyMonkey highlights searcher behavior — not professional searchers but the general web searchers. While the focus is on marketing for retail sites, it has some useful for informational findings as well. I found the following sad but not surprising:

  • 40% of searching activity is shopping (e-commerce), but
  • 65% don’t click on ads, or at least say they don’t since
  • 50% of those who do click on ads can’t differentiate the ads from regular search results.

On the positive side, I was surprised (but pleased) to hear that 90% of users will view the second page of search results.

For another depressing view of searcher behavior, see Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: March 16, 2013  which starts off with this rather negative quote:

“Users are incredibly bad at finding and researching things on the web . . . and they’ve only gotten worse over time.”

Such evaluations of general searcher skills should be incentive for us to teach search more effectively and frequently and encourage a greater understanding of search strategies and techniques. However, Jakob continues with a more pessimistic interpretation:

“It would certainly be nice if schools would get better at teaching kids how to search. But I don’t hold out much hope. . . . .most people today can’t think up good queries without help.”

For those of us who search frequently and professionally but also need to help others, both of these studies are useful reminders about searcher behavior and patterns as well as providing some interesting examples of how e-commerce sites try to help less-than-stellar searchers.

Here is an infographic summary of the iAquire study. iAcquire Search Behavior Study
iAcquire Search Behavior Study

Posted in Searcher Research

GoogleUI Experiments: Lost Preview, Embedded Site Search, & Lost Black Bar

Posted on by Greg

Google UI Experiment with cache under tiny triangle like Bing

I have seen reports of several interesting Google user interface (UI) experiments in the last few weeks. Most recently is one the removes the page previews (I wonder how many searchers really ever use that feature) and makes the cached link available under a tiny triangle, rather like Bing does. I came across this experiment when logged in and using Firefox. Someone else has a video of how it looks when not logged in. Here’s my comparison of the current interface with the experimental one:

 

 

I would not be surprised to see the previews disappear. I just hope that the cache link (and copy) remains, under this triangle like Bing’s or somewhere easily accessible.

So how many of these experiments does Google run? If it seems to happen more often lately, it appears that Google searchers can  see as many as 12 tests every time they do a search and that 5,000 such experiments every year. No wonder Google results can change so often! Interested in some of the other recent experiments? Here is a linked list with a few that have been documented:

Other experiments are certainly showing up for other searchers. Which ones may be adopted, only Google knows.

Posted in Google, User Interface

Bing’s Updated Date Searching

Posted on by Greg

Bing Date Search LimitBing has had date searching available for some time now, but it had been frustrating to use since the date limit options did not always show up at the top of the search results page. For my searching, it only showed up as an option when I did not want it and the date limit did not show up when I would have like to use it. For the last week or so, Bing has finally changed that and it now shows up on all of the search results, or at least on all of my searches.

In the past, I recommended switching over to Yahoo! which uses the Bing database and always showed a date limit for ease of adding the date limit. Now I have one less reason to use Yahoo! for searching and can use Bing instead. To get to the limit, run a search at Bing and then use the drop down limits available above the search results and under the search box. Four options are available:

  • All
  • Past 24 hours
  • Past week
  • Past month

I do wish that they would also include “past year” like Google  has (and the one that I probably use the most frequently). I’d also like to see the custom date option. Bing has the ability to add more limits, but for now at least they must be added by hand at the end of a Bing search results URL. The following codes can be used at Bing (and Google, usually):

  • past second: &tbs=qdr:s
  • past minute: &tbs=qdr:n
  • past hour: &tbs=qdr:h
  • past day: &tbs=qdr:d
  • past week: &tbs=qdr:w
  • past month: &tbs=qdr:m
  • past year: &tbs=qdr:y

I don’t find the second and minute ones that useful (and quite inaccurate), but I do wish that the past year would be added to the drop-down menu. Now that the three-option date limit is showing on all results, some are finally seeing it and make it sound like a new feature. That is the difference that having it always available makes.

Why the change at Bing? In part, I think it may be due to others complaining about the frequent lack of the date limit. I also wonder (and hope) that Bing has improved its date identification. One of the problems with date searching is that it has not always been easy to clearly identify the date of the content on a web page. Google has made major efforts over the years to better understand page content dates. Early search engine efforts relied on the date and time stamps of the file, but content management systems could be easily set up to constantly update the dates of static pages and server-side scripting also masked the date stamp since every page was created on request. With more blog posts and news media sites including date stamps within the text and dated comments giving data information, the pages can be better parsed for date. It is still not a perfect process, and I find plenty of examples which are inaccurately listed as being more current than they really are. However, overall Google does much better with date identification than it did several years ago, and I find myself using the date limit frequently. My hope for Bing is that they are also more accurately identifying dates and felt that it had improved enough that it could be rolled out on all search results pages.

Posted in Bing, Search Features Tagged with:

Bing Background

Posted on by Greg

I am not sure if this is a Bing user interface (UI) experiment or just some strange Chrome malfunction, but for several days in Chrome (only) on my home computer (only) the Bing search results page looks significantly different. After a closer inspection, I realized the results themselves were not changed. It was just the background. For some reason, instead of the usual white, there is a blue-grey background.
Bing UI Background

Strange how disconcerting I found this. Then it changed back to white a few days later. So whether it was a UI experiment on Bing’s part or some strange function of Chrome, it is back to normal now.

 

Posted in Bing, User Interface

New Image Filters: Animations & Transparency

Posted on by Greg

After so many Google features and products have gone to the Google Graveyard, it is nice to see new search features made available. gimage-anim.pngYesterday, Google announced on G+ that two new image search filters have been introduced: animations and transparent backgrounds. The filters are available both on the Google Advanced Image Search page (a pleasant change in that the advanced search pages have been hidden and ignored of late) and as Search Tools filters on image search. The screenshot from the advanced search shows both. The Transparent option is available under the Search Tools “Any color” drop down menu and on the advanced search “colors in image” choices. It restrict results to those with a transparent background.

The Animated filter is available under the Search Tools “Any type” drop down menue and on the advanced search “type of image” option. It restricts results to animated gifs. I have found this ability to limit to animated gifs useful at times. PicSearchWith the resurgent interest in animated gifs at Tumblr and other image intensive sites, there are many being created again, and so Google has added a way to find just animated gifs.

Previously, the only other option I have found for finding animated images are the old PicSearch (which has an “animation” filter on the left after running a search) and the newer Giphy (which is more limited to searching by tag and covers a much smaller selection of images). I am amazed that PicSearch, which seems relatively unknown with low traffic, has continued to be available for all these years and still offers the animation limit.

Google has a much larger databases that Giphy or PicSearch, so the ability to search its larger database and to be able to restrict to animated gifs or images with transparent backgrounds is a nice new feature. I expect that I’ll use bother several times a year, so for me they will not be common search features, but nice to have when I need them. The thumbnails in the search results display are not animated. However, clicking on an animated result will open an inline image display, and (if you wait long enough) the image within that dark grey inline display will start its animation.

There are two main types of animated gifs. The older ones were mostly clip art style animations, and often smaller dimensions to keep the file size small. Many of the newer ones are larger, pixel-dense photos, and thus are more larger file sizes. Since the animation limit is under the type section, there does not seem to be a way to combine “animation” with either “photo” or “clip art” for further narrowing by type.

Read more ›

Posted in Google, Image Search

The ‘New Bing’: Now Searching With Facebook

Posted on by Greg

Interested in the New Bing and unable to see it or would you just like a quick overview, now that it is supposed to be available to all U.S. users? See my NewsBreak on the New Bing. While the Facebook integration is interesting and has garnered the most press, I am also interested in seeing whether searchers find that the claims of increased relevance hold up, and as the new "Snapshot" (center column) is further populated with quick answers and other information, I will be interested to see how often if provides me with helpful information, especially in comparison to Google's new Knowledge Graph.

Posted in Bing, Social Search

Google Scholar Update in Progress

Posted on by Greg

Google Scholar has announced an update that brings Scholar more in line with other Google properties. Google Scholar is still not linked from the main Google page, but now (if you are getting the new look which is still being rolled out) Scholar has made a couple of changes to bring the look in line with the other Google revisions.

The main changes:

  1. The limits which had been along the top of the results are now on the left side
  2. Advanced Search is now hiding behind the small triangle in the search box like in News (see my older post on Advanced Search Changes)

The screenshot below, from the blog post, highlights these changes.

Screenshot

Posted in Google

More Punctuation Searching at Google

Posted on by Greg

Somehow I missed the announcement last month from Google which included a note that Google has started indexing more punctuation marks.  Based on this announcement, it looks like we can start searching with all of the following (some of which have been possible for years, like the dollar sign): %, $, \, ., @, #, and +.

Google Punctuation ExampleIt does not seem that Google has fully indexed all pages with these punctuation marks, but as it continues to refresh its indexing, more content should be indexed with these symbols and thus findable via a Google search. Already this change makes it possible to search for social tags like @bios and #cildc. I find it interesting that the top result for the last example is a link to a Twitter search for that hash tag (which by this point finds only 3 tweets). A much better search option is Topsy which claims over 1,000 tweets for the hash tag, but Google's new support of punctuation means its search finds the hash tag on other web pages. I need to explore more of these options, like using the + for the blood type ab+ or even b+ (which finds more uses than just blood type). Beware using old searches where the + is supposed make the term an exact match. Now the search may find a Google+ user instead.

I have never understood why Google supports the $ for searching prices but still does not support other currency symbols like the Euro, Pound, or Yen. But maybe this expansion of searchable punctuation will lead the way to more punctuation search capabilities.

Google Punctuation Search Help LinkIf a search using one of these punctuation marks finds no results, Google offers the search results without the punctuation and links to a new help page on punctuation searching.



 

Posted in Google