Yahoo and MSN made minor tweaks to their interface. One of them seems like a reaction to how people use search boxes.
If you search for the phrase “google.com” on one of these search engines, they will give you a second search box, similar to the one on top giving you a second try to use their search page.
What is going on here?
People buy package PCs and internet connection deals that involve changing the homepage to the preferred search engine of the dealer you bought it from. When people finally get the internet connection working, they start IE and type “google.com” in whatever box they can get their hands on. It has been known for a while that people use other search engines like that.
The strange thing though is that they did not notice the address bar and the similarity of the address in there and what they just typed.
Why not type “google.com” in the address bar?
I guess that people don’t know the difference between the browser interface and the webpage that is rendered by the browser.
The changes in the interface of these result pages, Yahoo and MSN, are most probable driven by real case studies, so you should be aware that:
- changing browser interface elements like the scroll bar will obfuscate the difference between browser and webpage even more
- people don’t know what an address bar is
- people don’t know what a URL is used for
- people know how a URL looks like
- people know what a link is
- people know what a textbox is and a button to search
The visitor on your site might be the same person that uses Yahoo as a bookmark to go to google.com.