After quietly launching SearchMash as a test ground for all things search late last year, Google is making the site a bit more Flashy.
SearchMash is a playground of sorts for Google to experiment with interaction and the display of search results. Now they have taken their simple search philosophy to the limits and added in a Flash interface for a more interactive look at results.
The new interface uses Snap previews of websites before they are visited and tabs that seamlessly switch between web, image and video searches. Keyboard shortcuts and mouse scroll wheel interactions have also been put into place for quicker navigation. A list of recent searches is conveniently hidden on the left side, with a portion of a window slightly sticking out. When moused over, a tray slides out and display the keywords. Not the best placement and surely not something that the average user would know where to mouse over. Then again, we have to pinch ourselves because this is after all just a test search interface for Google to play around with. Of course the HTML version of the site is still available if you aren't inclined to search with Flash.
What do you think of this little Google experiment. Would Flash interfaces fly for search efforts in the real world?
Microsoft is headed towards the rollout of a new Live.com search today, including a brand spankin' new interface.
There will be a gathering in Mountain View at the Microsoft campus for industry insiders to get a glimpse at Microsoft's latest search interface and redesign today. The new redesign will see a refreshing look for the search interface taking cues from both Ask and Google Universal Search. MSN Shopping will also get tied into the search results for consumer product results, making for an all around better user experience.
Akram Hussein, a Windows Live Platform Program Manager caught a glimpse of the new look while on his home PC, and managed to snap a few shots of the cleaned up design. He has since pulled down the post with images from his website but we did manage to get copies and have compared them with the current Live.com search results. We will have to wait and see what else is truly unveiled as all information from the meeting will be under an embargo for later this evening.
In more MSN news, there is also talk of MSN Video adding instant start and less intrusive ads in video content.
UPDATE: Microsoft's press release on the new updated Live Search Engine.
Gallery: Microsoft gets set to launch new Live.com Search interface
We certainly haven't heard a lot from the del.icio.us labs recently. As other social bookmarking sites announce exciting new features and designs, the one that started it all seemed to be lagging a tad. That's all about to change soon, apparently.
The del.icio.us team has been working their backsides off on building a new platform for the bookmarking site. Not only have they been doing that but they have also been looking at the current user interface and working out ways in which it could be easier to use, and more functional.
The usability tests have been in the works, and a dozen individuals have been working through the positives and negatives of the designs. So we think we can all breathe a sigh of relief as there should be a beta of the new design rolled out in the near future. Now if only we could nail that supposed date down.
With so many great webmail offerings out there, only two are considered the frontrunners. Yahoo, the oldest player, has just revamped with unlimited storage and some drag and drop interface changes, while Google has the threaded simplicity thing going on adding built in Chat, Doc, Calendar, and Spreadsheet applications with a less cluttered appearance.
In this battle, who is the real leader? Veronica Belmont from Cnet put up both Yahoo Mail and Gmail up to the test on which one of these AJAX email applications is the leader. She weighs in and compares all of the strengths and weaknesses of both services in interface design, features, speed, organization, and security to come up with the end winner.
Photobucket is set to make an announcement that will allow users of its personal media management service -- which stores and shares images and videos -- a way to utilize flash to edit video's online.
The free service is said to be open in beta this month to premium customers, and rolled out to everyone in March. The web based video editor will be timeline based and allow users to mix photos and videos stored in Photobucket with captions, soundtracks, and effects through a drag and drop interface.
Photobucket allows users to upload photo and video content to create interactive collages, scrolling images, slideshows, animated image stamps, share video clips, and buy prints. This new initiative will most likely see its approximately 35 million current users increase drastically to see if the flash based video tool can benefit them.
My friend Ty pointed out to me today that Google has changed the interface of Google Images, and not necessarily for the better. While the old results display for Google Images searches showed a thumbnail of each image along with the host's domain name, the image's dimensions, and a short description (taken from the image's context on the site). Now Google Images only shows the short description unless you move your mouse over one of the thumbnails. For me, this makes the service significantly less intuitive. If I'm looking for, say, a logo that's a certain size, I want to be able to see each image's dimensions at a glance, but with the new interface I have to roll my mouse over each and every one until I find one that's the right size. Similarly, being able to see the hosts of all of the images was handy, especially if you noticed that many of them are served by the same host. But now it's like a puzzle, moving your mouse around until you find what you're looking for.
I'm not sure if this new interface is showing up for all users, as Google is in the habit of testing new interfaces on a small cross section of users, but either way I hope this is an interface change they reconsider. What do you think of the update?
Wallop was started inside Microsoft as an experiment in their labs. They decided to spin it off into its own separate company and got it funded by a few VC's. Wallop is a different kind of social network. It's completely built in Flash and supports modules that add to a custom personal expression. The beta came into effect, and we had an inside peek at what it looks like. It blows MySpace away as far as looks are concerned, but is it an effective social network?
Categories for your Wallop space include, a Homepage, Pictures, Music, Mods, Blog, Conversations, and Network. Take a peek at some different screen shots of the Wallop Flash interface after the jump.
Here is an interesting site that is very different in terms of its user interface. The weird thing is that the site itself does not want you to click on it (after the first time). The entire interface is created in flash and simply lets the mouse-over do all the walking. While I don't think it will catch on in a big way, in is clever, well-done, and like a prototype car, is a good proof of concept. It is hard to not click the site, since everything we do online is based on clicks, but it is possible. I almost don't mind the dontclick.it interface, but it must be an incredibly time-consuming way to build a web interface, and it makes you feel as though you don't have quite so much control over what happens on the page, which is a bit disconcerting. I would tell you to go check it out, but then you would have to click on the link, so that defeats the whole purpose. Oh well.
One thing we've heard about Office 2007's new "ribbon" menu system is that it's pretty big, and Microsoft apparently was hearing that a lot, too. Microsoft says that in the next beta release of Office 2007, the ribbon--which our own Ryan Carter praised in his video review earlier this week--will have an auto-hide option to make it disappear from view when not in use. Microsoft Australia's John Hodgson also says Microsoft is working on tools to make migrating to Office 2007 easier for businesses. "We've been asked by a lot of customers to provide tools to do mass migrations," Hodgson said. "There will be tools that will take a million documents and migrate those to the new formats." Microsoft says that Office 2007's new XML-based file formats produce 75% smaller files than previous versions.
By now you've probably seen a few screenshots of the new "ribbon"
interface that will replace the menubar and toolbars in Microsoft Office 2007. It doesn't seem so mysterious to me,
but then I'm not really Office's average use case. If you want a better idea of what using Office's new interface is
really like, I recommend this streaming preview
video (direct link to WMV stream) that Microsoft has put together. It's a 13-minute marketing piece so be prepared
for some awkward scripted dialogue from Real Microsoft Employees (Dear Product Manager Julie Larson-Green: The camera
is over here. Please look at it.), and unless you're a corporate executive you'll probably get the gist of it in the
first five minutes. Personally I'm excited about the new interface, but then I only use Office a couple times a month
and am used to picking up new interfaces at the drop of a hat. For the average cube-dweller, I'm not yet convinced that
it wouldn't cost companies a bundle in time spent relearning.
Awhile back I posted
about the new search results interface Google was supposedly
testing. I can definitely confirm that today. This blog post describes how to set a new
cookie in Firefox that will force Google to display the new results page for you. Since the instructions are a little
off (and took me some fiddling to make them to work), here's my version:
Update:In the comments reader
Whosawhatsis has posted an easier way to accomplish the same thing without installing any extensions. Try that
first.
Run the extension by going to Tools >
Cookie Editor.
Type "google" into the box at the top and click
"Filter/Refresh". Scroll through the list and look for a cookie called "PREF"
(Disclaimer: I don't know what this cookie is really for, so modify it at your own
risk!).
If it exists, double-click on it and change the
"Content" field to the following (remove the line break first):
If it does not exist, you must create it. Click on Add. Enter PREF for
the Name and the bold string above for Content. Set the Domain to .google.com and /
for the Path. Set the expiration date to whatever you want--pick "Expire at end of session" if you only want
to see the "new" Google until the next time you launch Firefox. Otherwise set a date far in the future.
Click Save and then close out of the Cookie Editor. The next time you
search Google you should see the new search results page. If you get sick of it, you can just delete to cookie and
it'll go away.
One
of my daughter's favorite books is "Green Eggs and Ham." You know the story (hopefully), guy says he doesn't
like them, then he tries 'em, and lo and behold, he does like green eggs and ham. Who knew? Well I've barely tried it,
but upon first taste, I'm not a big fan of the "new" Yahoo homepage interface. What, you haven't seen it? We
mentioned an image of the
interface on Flickr earlier. Apparently they're running an ever-increasing scope of IP lotteries, so you may never
see it until it's launched. Today I went to Yahoo.com, and my muscle memory went kooky. Hey, where's that top toolbar?
Oh, it's kind've on the side now, except you've got all the top services listed, not just four. The UI really reminds
me of MSN though. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I've really never been this resistant to change, so is
this a sign of aging or am I just complaining because I was surprised by the new UI? So I've linked the image on this
post with a larger version, so anyone who hasn't seen this can comment. Do you like it?
It's only one of over a hundred new
technologies being displayed at the annual
TechFest, put on by Microsoft Research, but it's intriguing. Essentially it's a Dance Dance Revolution-style
interface for doing things on your computer. See some spam? Stomp on it! It uses currently-available dance pads to
issue commands to the computer, assigning buttons to do things like scroll, open, or flag an email. Best of all, to get
rid of an email, you hit both of your feet on the pad. Sounds like fun, and I agree with the MS folks who presume this
might get people a little more active while sitting on their duffs. More importantly, it brings multitasking to a new
level, as you'll be able to work with your hands and feet on the computer. Great, does this mean my boss will assume
I'll be more productive? I'll at least look cool, flailing about my cubicle.
A
few people are reporting that Google is testing out a
new design for its search results page. The alleged new design has a sidebar on the left that shows the number of
search results for Google's various services (Images, News, etc.) as small green bars, with links for Advanced Search,
Preferences, and Search History below. The search results are displayed as usual in the rest of the page. At first I
was skeptical, but cruising the comments on Digg turns up a number of reports from different users all with screenshots
of the same layout but with different browsers and search results. One user even posted a RAR file with the source of
one such results page. Sure, it could all be an elaborate hoax, but it's more likely that Google is testing out its new
interface on a few users here and there. When and whether the rest of us will get to see it in action is anyone's
guess.
It's only one of over a hundred new
technologies being 
