More Google Searchology: Usability

Senior User Experience Kerry Rodden and Software Engineer Ben Gomes are talking about how Google strives to ensure that its services are usable. It does a lot of research involving real people doing real searches while using eye-tracking technology so that Google can see exactly where they're looking on a page of results.

It's vital that Google understand what you're likely to be looking for in contect--that if you search for a place name, you might want geographical information, for instance. And it needs to be smart enough that if you search for "brittaney spires" it can still figure out what you want. Or if you search for "ABC Survivor," even though Survivor is actually on CBS.

Now they're showing a neat eye-tracking video showing what happened when a real person who was shopping for a TV had trouble doing a relevant search. (He started out by simply searching for the vague term "television.") A recent feature called query refinements, which shows related searches at the bottom of the page, is designed to help folks like that guy.

Finally, a gag: A slide about a new service called Google ObjectFinder that can help you find your keys.

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