Telescope: Everything You Need to Know About Search
Welcome to this edition of Telescope on Search, our monthly newsletter devoted to search. Our goal is to
offer a regular, quick-browse e-newsletter with useful information, tips, and news of the latest developments
on Site Search, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, and site usability. If you have any
feedback or questions please direct them
to newsletter@sli-systems.com.
Feature: Adding Ajax to Search - Does it Improve the User Experience?
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Shaun Ryan
CEO, SLI Systems
We’ve all traversed the Web via search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN. In fact, search is now a part of our
daily lives and we’re inherently familiar with what to expect from it. But what if we added Ajax to the equation?
By letting us search the Internet in new ways, could Ajax make the user experience even better? A number of search
engines are working to find out.
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Ajax
Google is experimenting with AJAX at Searchmash.com; Microsoft is using it on Windows Live; Amazon is using
Ajax on A9; Eurekster is using it to allow users to change the search results on Swikis, and Snap.com is using it
to display search suggestions.
Ajax, which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web technique that refreshes content on a web page
without reposting the web page. This enables features such as infinite scrolling, where more results are returned
in the background and added to the existing results, either when you get close to the bottom or when you click to
see the next page. You can also obtain more information about results when you mouse over them or click on a
portion of them. For example, if you mouse over the binoculars icon on Ask’s search results, you see a screen shot
of the page.
With so many search portals experimenting with Ajax features, it’s clear that the potential is high. But,
the real benefit to users remains to be seen.
Our experience
When we first looked at this type of technology back in 2000 – using Flash rather than Ajax – the
concept was the same. The Flash code would enable features such as continuous scrolling or pop-up information
summaries when a visitor moused-over a search result.
While we found it fairly easy to implement these new features, we also found that they added very little to
the user experience. People grow comfortable with the traditional search features they
know, and they don't readily understand new interfaces, so the user experience is degraded.
The future
Rather than focusing on the development of completely new and different interfaces for search results, the real
opportunity for adding interactivity via Ajax to search seems to be the ability to speed things up by not having
to refresh an entire page, thereby allowing subtle improvements to the existing user interface.
As more web search engines experiment with innovative new ways to use Ajax for search, it will be interesting to
see which Ajax-powered features enhance the user experience enough to become mainstays.
If you have any comments you'd like to share, email us at
newsletter@sli-systems.com.
SLI Systems & Customers in the News
Below are links to recent news articles highlighting our Learning Search service:
Search expertise delivers results - IT Week - May 31, 2007
Critique Part Four: Site Search - Practical Ecommerce - June 30, 2007
Search Engine Strategies San Jose - Discount Conference Pass or Free Expo Pass
SLI is exhibiting at SES San Jose, for discount passes please see the offer below;
SES San Jose
August 20 - 23, 2007
San Jose, CA
20% off conference pass or free expo pass - register at www.SESSanJose.com, priority code 20SLI.
Register by Aug 3, 2007, to receive Early Bird pricing – an additional saving of $150! Discount
applies to attendees who have not yet registered, if you have already registered, please pass this on to a
colleague. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other discounts.
If you have any comments or suggestions for future issues please email us at
newsletter@sli-systems.com.
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