Google’s results page displays in a single column on the left, reserving ¾ of the screen for some sort of demented hover-enabled page preview. I hate hate hate that giant Sargasso sea of wasted space. It’s like some depressed secretary tried to OD on White Out but ended up vomiting on sixty percent of my screen. I did manage to turn off the “hey, aren’t you nostalgic for pop-ups” action, so merely hovering over the double-arrows doesn’t immediately bring it up–but I still have the emptiness inside (maybe if I drink White Out the emptiness won’t hurt so much?).
However, I figure that maybe it’s one of those things I just don’t “get.” You know, like Andy Kaufman. Maybe I wouldn’t be so hate-filled if someone who uses it took a moment to explain how/why/what they use it for.
Holy balls, add that to the list. Do you actually use it? I use Wiki and CIA all the time, so I can see them thinking I’m incapable of checking there first for what I’m looking for–or hoping that I’ll stop going there first and instead use Google. Is it in-depth enough to lessen the need to visit actual pages? Is it as awesome as, say, Google Converter or Calculator?
ETA: Helpful tip: if you’re on a page you search a lot (Wiki, CIA factbook, thesaurus, etc.), right-click in the search box, then click “add a keyword for this search.” You can then instanly search that page from the address bar (FF 18; I assume Chrome as well). So all I have to do to search Wiki is hit ww subject and I go right to either the Wiki page or its search results. Very useful.
Actually I just goggled “Whats the empty space on the right side of Google results used for?” And Strings to Things came up in the search. Without any damn Strings to Things on the Right hand side of the results. 
:smack: Bastards!
Moved to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator