In the browser I was using until I upgraded my hardware recently, Google’s main page looked like this. Note the visible, if not precisely prominent, link to Advanced Search.
(And I can still bring that page up by going to www.google.com in older browsers on the new machine).
But in Safari, my computer is now behaving the same way my friends with modern computers have been for quite some time now: when they go to Google (or I do while borrowing the use of their computer for some reason) the page that loads is plainer: just the Google logo, the single search input field, and the two buttons (Google Search and I’m Feeling Lucky), except that there’s a black menubar up top (“You, Search, Images, Maps”, etc).
When I first encountered that screen, I became frustrated; I don’t have [noparse]“http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en”[/noparse] memorized and so I’m accustomed to going to the main Google page and then clicking “Advanced Search”. But, OK, so it will be under “Search”. Umm, no. All right, “More”. No again.
What’s the rationale for making these search pages obscure? I mean, yeah, you can Google “Advanced Search” and get there easily enough :rolleyes: (yeah it did finally occur to me) but it wasn’t originally something you had to be in the know in order to realize it existed. Now it is.
I never use advanced search, so I didn’t even realise they’d moved it. So before even reading the rest of your post I decided to see if I could find it.
Took me one click to find it, then another click to actually click the link. O nose. An extra click. It’s buried so deep I nearly couldn’t find it!
I don’t have it anywhere easily on the initial Google search screen. Once I do a search, it’s pretty straightforward. See herefor where it is - and it doesn’t matter whether I’m signed in or not, for the lack of a quick link on the initial search page.
I also miss the advanced search button on the opening page (primarily because I am a librarian and it would be nice to show it to students easier). But I long ago memorized the various important shortcuts like site:edu, etc.
What I really miss is Google Scholar. It used to be on the ‘More’ page, but now it is on the ‘Even More’ page down near the bottom under specialized search. I tend to go directly to the website name (http://scholar.google.com), but I’ve found that students would rather go to Google itself and find it that way. Half of the time, they just Google… Google Scholar. Kinda crazy.
Almost as much as the quick access to Scholar, is that I miss Google.com/unclesam - yes, I can limit easily to .gov sites, but that link was easy for students to remember, and I could feel pretty confident that they’d leave the reference desk and remember that.
Actually, my browser was updated about two days ago. I’ve got the same “simplified” google page with the black menu bar at the top that the OP is bitching and moaning about, and have had for several months now.
If I want an advanced version of any software I’m using, the first thing I do is look for “Settings” or “Options”. Which on all google pages is the cog in the top right corner. Not labelled overtly, but half a second mouse hovering and oh look, it pops up and says “Options”.
Click. Oh look, Advanced Search. Two clicks and we’re done. Yes, it’s not on the front page any more but it’s hardly “obscure”. Options> Advanced Search. What a ground breaking and revolutionary change!
Simplified? I count over 30 individual links on that page, with the original page having 9.
There is no cog on the main page. So, in order to do an advanced search, I have to run a basic search then click on the cog then select advanced search, and re-enter my search criteria. I think if I was a regular user of advanced search, I’d be hella-pissed that they removed a direct link from the main page, while adding over 20 new links to the page.
Bad design can be used strategically. If a certain function would be advantageous to phase out, you can get fewer people to use it by increasing the click count.
For instance, if a simple search could direct you to a “preferred” website more frequently than an advanced search, this strategy makes a lot of sense. They force you through the more revenue centric simple search before you get to the less profitable advanced search.
Or you might want to actually deflect eyeballs away from certain parts of your site that are not generating ad revenue. Never mind where they go; you’re looking to get them not to go to a page you want to drown in the bathtub to free up resources you could make money with.
I can remember a few years ago when Google Groups came up about sixth on the menu of subsites. It’s now about 53rd.
I typed something into the main search, hit enter then went to Advanced search and it carried the original string over…maybe yer compooter box done broke.
Either way, I don’t think I ever used advanced search anyways which I’m guessing is the case for the huge majority of Google users which is probably why the put it a few links deeper. What I do like is Show Search Tools so when I’m trying to find out about something that just happened I can click on “Past 24 hours/week/month”. That’s really helpful IMO.
Also, if you’re that worried about Advanced Search, just bookmark this page and set an icon on your toolbar then you don’t even have to stop at Google.com first.
I have to run a basic search - that I don’t want to fucking run because I want a fucking advanced search
Then I go to the basic search results page - that I don’t want to fucking go to because I want a fucking advanced search
Then I go to the cog and select advanced search - Yay!
Then I finally get to enter the advanced search criteria that I really wanted, which may or may not include using the basic search terms I already entered, because they “helpfully” insert them into the “all these words” section. If I don’t want to search “all these words” I ALSO have to delete the original search terms from that section before re-entering them elsewhere.
Or, they could have left a link on their main page.
Just playing with it, I’ve found that if you use the +, -, OR, AND etc operators it appropriately sorts out the terms into the correct lines.
This is just one of those ‘not a big deal’ things. Also, you could just use that bookmark I posted earlier. Click on that link, save it as a bookmark, then drag the bookmark to your toolbar and just click on that and/or use it as your homepage/new tab page…then you’re one click closer then you were before the big change.
Really people? Are we now complaining about free shit? Especially when the company in question has done more to organize information, and provide well-regarded products than nearly any other company EVER. Doubly so when said company allows you to easily write to them to suggest that they change things back.
Seriously, I can get behind this being a minor annoyance. But that this one extra click makes your butt hurt enough to whine about it on the internet makes me think you need to tone down your level of entitlement.
Google isn’t free. When ever you are not paying for a product, you are the product. In return for all the income we collectively provide to Google, they provide minimal service, for which we can be justifiably pissed when they screw it up.
