Google’s Blue Arrows: I Hate It, Turn It Off!
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Google’s Blue Arrows: I Hate It, Turn It Off!

5th October 2010

Ok, this is going to be a bit of a rant post. I just HAVE to complain about Google, just for a little bit.

<start rant>You know me, I’m somebody who looks at things with a critical view, but with an open view at the same time. There is a reason for everything and before I judge I try to understand that reason first. And you know I can be critical on some things some Googlers might say, but in the end I’m a Google user. Just like everybody else. Although the fact that Bing is not yet available in it’s full potential in Europe does play a role.

But on Googles latest change I cannot for the love of God understand WHY Google implemented this change, and why they don’t have an option to turn it off. I’m talking about the keyboard search functionalities Google implemented last week as part of Instant Search. I’m not a big fan of Instant Search, but I can live with it, it doesn’t bother me. And as somebody who watches what’s going on at the search engines carefully I’m not tempted to turn it off just yet. I want to see how this develops. And as a matter of fact, I hardly notice it.

But the keyboard search… OMG Google… why?? And why can’t I turn the freaking function off???

I’m guessing most of you know what changes I’m talking about, but for those who don’t, Google last week added the possibility to scroll through your search results one by one using the arrows on your keyboard. If you look at your results you will see a little blue arrow in front of a search result. When you use your arrow keys to scroll down, the blue arrow will go to the next result. When you get to the result you want to hit and enter and you will be taken to the specific page. It looks nice, if you don’t have a mouse. But here’s my problem:

When I do a search I tend to scroll up and down the page to see all the search results. I then make the decision wether or not I will click on a link. Going up and down used to go really fast. Scanning was no problem. With the new feature however Google takes me down one result at a time, which means I have to use four clicks to see the first result below the fold. It takes me forever to scan a page now!

And each time I now do a search it annoys me. I thought Google was all about speed? What happened here Google? Where did the speed go? I thought Google Instant was developed to make things faster?

And here comes the second annoyance: I can’t turn the damn feature off without turning off Google Instant all together. Oh come on Google!

I can really honestly say: I hate this feature, and I can’t turn it off! It could drive me away from Google all together to be honest. Google’s changes over the last year have all been about user experience. Making things better for the user, that’s at least what they are claiming. Well, in this case for me they have overdone it. This experience really really sucks! </end rant>

There, thats what I just had to get off my chest. Am I the only one feeling like this? Am I missing something? What do you think?

Written By
Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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