The Golden Hat

I’ve been waiting for Google to release Google Chrome for a while. I think there have been murmurs and whispers about Google’s release of a web browser that would compete with Microsoft’s IE for a few years now. Much to the contempt of Microsoft, Google Chrome appears to be the web browser that most of us have been searching for and FINALLY it’s released!

The concept is simple. No surprise to any of you that have used several of Google’s products. The design lacks flash but has an abundance of usability. No surprise either. Neither should it be a surprise that the Google Chrome browser absolutely dominates all other browsers out there that currently exist (I still have love for you Firefox!). In short Google Chrome is great. Here are some reasons why:

The design and UI is simple. As a frequent browser I hate clumsy navigation and not having centralized browsing tools. As Google states it, “One box for everything.” For example, with Google Chrome a sub-navigation box opens when you begin downloading files while browsing. It looks something like this:

Firefox, which opens a second, smaller browser window that runs the download status of the files is probably the next best thing in the world of web browsers. With Firefox this was a step up from a usability perspective from IE, yet the “one box” mentality from Google Chrome really tops off the download functionality aspect of web browsing.

Google also provides a laundry list of learning center tools to teach users about the Google Chrome interface and functionality. Google certainly lives up to it’s expectedly sleek yet simple design. Go to the Google Chrome features page to view video tutorials and learn a bit more about how it works.

Let’s get down to the really cool stuff though. Chrome has a usability aspect called Google Chrome Incognito. The idea is that some web browsing should be left untracked, and cookie-less. A user can browse in Incognito mode whereby the cookies placed during that session are deleted once the browser is closed. A user can then have separate browsers open, one in standard viewing mode and the other in Incognito mode so that the browsing history stored in one browser is maintained while the other browsing information is deleted upon closure of the browser box. Google explains a bit more about Chrome Incognito here.

Google takes the UI a bit further with the bold/shaded view of the page URL. A common SEO analogy regarding URL naming is that a user should be able to cover up the screen and predict what information they will find on the screen based on the URL. Basically, the URL should be short, descriptive, keyword centric, and void of dynamic variables. Google reinforces the usability aspect of URLs by placing the domain of the URL in bold, black letters and “shading” the protocol and directories/files of the URL in a lighter, gray font. Here’s is a screen shot example that I took today:

There are several other usability improvements with Google Chrome and I suggest you check them out. In the meantime I’m going to continue browsing with it and find out exactly how all of these tools and functions work within “one box.”

Thank you Google for finally releasing this! In a recent post of mine I mentioned how Google is dominating Yahoo! in the search market share. Well, Google is drinking Microsoft’s milkshake in more than one way now with search market share dominance as well as a newly started web browser competition.

What do you think about Google Chrome?

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If you haven’t seen There Will Be Blood then I dare say you don’t fully understand just how bad Google is putting the smack down on the search engine marketplace.

Yahoo!… if you’re listening!? Google drinks your milkshake. They drink it up!!!

As Google approaches the 70% market share milestone in U.S. search volume many people also forget about just how dominating Google is in other markets. U.K. market share currently is closing in on 90%. So, if Google has a straw, and Yahoo! has a straw…. and Google’s straw reaches into Yahoo!’s milkshake….. Google drinks your milkshake!!!

What does this mean for people interested in the search landscape? Well, many things. We all know that each engine tends to adjust its preferences for what makes a page rank so well, whether it be link value, where the link value comes from, keyword density and keyword location on the page, page load time, etc. So as market share adjusts then the weight that each page optimization element is given should consequently shift. Basically, if Google end’s up reaching 80% plus market share or more then the name of the optimization game is going to be about links, quality links, and more links (as if it weren’t already).

I just hope that Google continues to expand its search quality team as quickly as they are expanding their domestic and international market share. More market share means more attention, which in the Web world means more spam usually. As a personal example I didn’t receive any comment spam on my blog until I established Page Rank. But I quickly found out when Page Rank was established though as evidenced by the 700 porn and prescription drug spam comments I was receiving each day. Thank you Akismet for clearing my blog of this rubbish!

Pretty soon Yahoo! won’t have much of a milkshake to drink from anymore. Let’s not even begin to talk about Live Search and the others.

Cheers Google! Drink it up….

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Udi Manber, VP of Engineering at Google and the person in charge of Google’s Search Quality Team, gave those of us in the Search world a refreshing dose of transparency into some of Google’s practices and internal organization. As Udi points out the secrets of their Google search algorithm are treated as the Google crown jewels for a few very simple reasons: competition and abuse.

Of course we can’t expect to be given the key to the lock protecting Google’s “crown jewel”, but as Search professionals or those invested in the quality of online content we can follow the museum rule of look, but don’t touch. So Google is showing signs of extroversion and opening up a bit. As Udi Manber wrote, “…being completely secretive isn’t ideal, and this blog post is part of a renewed effort to open up a bit more than we have in the past. We will try to periodically tell you about new things, explain old things, give advice, spread news, and engage in conversations.”

Something that I would like to have more visibility into as a Search Professional is Google’s steps into improving the user experience. Udi makes it clear that Google’s primary goal is not to improve the user experience, it is Google’s ONLY goal. I find it valuable to see the direction that the major search engines are moving in so that I can evaluate a search engine not only by the quality and relevancy of the content found in it’s search results, but in the quality and relevancy of their new developments, product improvements and innovations.

Udi spoke of the approximately 450 user experience improvements implemented last year by Google’s Search Quality Team, averaging a blistering speed of about 9 user experience roll-outs per week. That’s pretty impressive. Chances are though I’d have to dig and dig to find mention of most of these improvements. One could comb through the Official Google Blog or various other search industry insider blogs, yet I doubt we would find mention of all of these improvements and their anticipated impact on Google user experience.

Maybe I’m just lazy. But Udi, if you’re listening, I for one would find great value in seeing a list of these user experience improvements. With so much evaluation and refinement going on with the Search Quality Team I can’t help but wonder what’s coming out next!?

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