User Interface Category Archive
Trends Highlighted on Bing
Yesterday I noticed a new left margin icon appearing on some results at Bing. A small, grey, curved, upward arrow shows up just to the left of the title on results that are "trending" on Facebook and/or Twitter. These trend icons appear whether or not I am logged in. I am guessing that it is part of Bing's newly relaunched social search push although it is not mentioned in today's announcement:: "Introducing the New Bing: Spend Less Time Searching, More Time Doing." Since I do not yet see the new social search even when logged in, you can read reports from The Atlantic, Danny at Search Engine Land, and see Bing's video embedded below.
The trend arrow icons only shows up for currently popular topics (probably popular links but I am not sure) on Twitter and/or Facebook. Note in the image on the right how one example just notes Twitter while the other says "Trending on Twitter and Facebook." Like the thumbs-up icon for sites "liked" by friends on Facebook, Both of the examples in the image (animated GIF, refresh this page to see it again) worked yesterday but not today, so this information must be refreshed somewhat frequently. I find this additional information interesting and potentially useful. Since the social search is not yet visible to me and is supposed to only be available in the U.S., I am assuming that this trend icon is visible outside the U.S., at least on the main Bing site, but send me a tweet @notess if not.
Here's Bing's video about the new social search:
New Bing Results Page Live in U.S.: What's Missing?
Late last night I started seeing the new Bing user interface live on results pages in all my browsers. I first saw it last week in a slightly different version, but now it is official and has been reported on by Verge, TechCrunch, and SearchEngineLand. Most of the focus is on whether the new "cleaner" look is more like Google used to be, but a few comments have noticed some of what is missing from this new search results page:
New Bing User Interface Test
I see or hear about all kinds of Google user interface changes tested by being made available to a small fraction of users. Yesterday I came across one from Bing. The main changes I noticed:
- History gone
- Related searches moved to the right of results
- Far fewer results at the top
- Less color: move to grey or black icons and database names
Google Plays & Experiments with Collapsible Search Sidebar
Google Play, the new combined online Google store for music, books, and Android apps, is now being featured prominently in the top Google bar, highlighted with a "NEW" superscript. Clicking the Play link does not transfer a search that you have already done in Google (which is what happens with Images, Maps, and YouTube) but just opens the main Play page for buying something from Google. Sorry Google, but this is not a search-related enhancement. How about adding Scholar to the bar or at least the drop down list under More?
Meanwhile, Google OS shares a report and video of a royally stupid Google User Interface experiment: a collapsible search sidebar, further excluding the links to databases and search tools when Google already only shows some of the options. If I remember correctly, Google tried this experiment a few years ago when the sidebar was new. It stunk then and stinks now. If you want users to have these options, make them viewable! Better yet, give us the option in search settings to always have both the databases at the top and the search tools at the bottom fully expanded.
Remember when Google use to make improvements to search?
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