[Guest post by Manas Garg. He puts forth an interesting viewpoint regarding search vs. navigation and whether search is able to answer most of user's intent. Do share your comments and if you want to submit a post, please use this form]
When I want to get to a webpage whose URL I don’t know, I usually have two options – go to the website that hosts the page and subsequently navigate to the page by clicking here and there OR go to Google search box and type some appropriate keywords and pick that page from the list. So, if I want to download mysql for Linux, I can either go to mysql.com and follow the download link or I can go to Google, type mysql linux download and pick up the relevant search result.?
We all know that the method #2 has won over method #1. And there are several good reasons for it. The regular, good old navigation method is dying (well almost). I’ll come back to it in sometime but for now, let’s see why I go to Google for getting to my destination page instead of the website that hosts the page.?
First, there is just too much information out there for me to navigate my way through it. Too much of text to be scanned through by my eyes before I can find the link to click. Each website has its own navigation model and my mind has to get trained every time I go to a new site. And there is no predictability about how many times will I need to click before I reach the desired page.?
With Google, the interaction model is simple. I go to Google, type the keywords, hit Enter, scan the results vertically downwards, click on the link where I want to go. Predictable, fast (because Google loads fast), and my mind is trained so that repeat cycles don’t require so much effort.?
Secondly, if I am looking for hotels in Shimla, I wouldn’t even know which website hosts the page that I am looking for. How will I navigate my way through “Hotels in Shimala” in that case??
And thirdly, it’s about choice. If I am looking for “Hotels in Shimla”, I would like to do some “research” and check out multiple sites that provide relevant information.?
I wouldn’t say that these are the only reasons but these are enough to paint a picture of why I go to Google, type “mysql linux download”, click on the relevant link from the results page instead of going to mysql.com, navigating my way through the site, and reaching the mysql download page. In fact, it’s very easy to navigate to mysql download page from their home page but still I don’t do it because I have chosen a method for myself now.?
I would also like to tell a small story here. No, I am not digressing. The story is very very relevant.?
I used to stay in Bangalore till sometime back. I don’t know how bad the Forum junction is now but it used to be pretty bad 2-3 years back. Once I was talking to one of my ex-manager when I mentioned that I stopped going to Forum because I found it very difficult to drive down to that place. My manager said with a wicked smile, “Oh! But it’s very easy for me. I just tell my driver that you take me to Forum”.?
Navigating to a place in Bangalore was very easy for my manager. He just had to say “Take me to that place”. That’s what Google Search is for me. I just say “Take me to mysql download page”. Or “Take me to all the hotels-in-shimala pages”. That’s all I have to do in the name of navigation.?
So, the point here is not that the navigation is dead. The point here is that search is the new navigation method. When I am lost in Pune Camp area, I roll down the window of my car, ask the scooter guy next to me on a red signal, “hello, where is the race course road?” The scooter guy says, ?Go left, 1 km down the road, take right, skip 4 signals, turn left and immediate right?. Or he says, “I am also going there, follow me”. Ah! Such a relief!!?
That’s what search is now and that’s the navigation model in the new web. And why talk about web, even for individual websites, that’s how it’s got to be. The sooner we realize and build the navigation model of our websites around it, the better it is. We were looking at the usability of one network management product which had hundreds of screens to do hundreds of things on the network devices. One of the important feature we thought for navigation model was to have a screen search box at the top. You want to configure routes, just put “route configuration” at the top and you’d be taken to the relevant screen or a list of potentially relevant screens.?
Of course regular, good old navigation is not dead. It is still needed when one is in an exploratory mode and doesn’t necessarily have a specific objective. If I am just curious about mysql, I would go to mysql.com and would likely use the regular, good old navigation. If I am just a curious visitor to Bangalore, I wouldn’t tell my driver “Take me to Forum”. I would rather say “Show me the city” and expect the driver to provide a “guided-tour” kind of thing.?
So, search is not just search. It’s navigation especially when I know what I want but don’t know where it is. And search is not just Google search. It is search. Google may be the best way to do it in most of the cases. Good old navigation is for exploration and may be for serving 5 most common purposes for which people come to a site.?
Does it change the way I approach the navigation design for my website? Does it change the way I think about navigation on web in general.
[About the author: Manas is interested in a variety of things like psychology, philosophy, sociology, photography, movie making etc. But since there are only 24 hours in a day and most of it goes in sleeping and earning a living, he amuses himself by writing software, reading a bit and sharing his thoughts.]
its same for all of us. actually when we need something on the web and we know exactly what we want, its best to search it out through some search engine(preferably google). Reason is, google(or its crawlers) have already done that part of work you need to do before reaching the real content. All you need to figure out the right keywords and the right way to search.
Gautam Kishore
http://www.eulogik.com
Hi! Manas
Loved the metaphors you used to explain navigation. I cannot help but observe your use Google all through the article….But, put up the screen shot of Yahoo! Search
Trust is another reason why i use search engine for navigation.
Eg:To access my icici account, i prefer not to type icicibank.com because a spelling error might lead to a phishing page.
-Mahesh
Celebrating Life…
@Mahesh – I put up that screenshot!
Couldn’t find anything else that fit the context.
-Ashish
Manas,
Good article.
Thinks will change with the introduction of Google’s Chrome browse.
If you take a look at Google’s Chrome Browser method #2 (Direct Navigation) will be more popular in future. They have even done away with the search bar and the address bar includes both the url and the suggested search links.
It gives weightage to the Bookmarks, Search history and to the country code url.
Try typing mysql in your google chrome browser.
Regarding Google.com, even though google search has google suggest as the default, it is available only on the mainpage (google.com).
Note: Direct navigation includes Bookmarked sites and accounts for upto 10% of the search share.
Hi,
interesting !
Search is impacting, however as of today Navigation is also important !
What user cares about is “Easy Navigation, interface and interaction !” and “Google is easy navigation”.
Once someone google and come to your website, one need to provide the consistent way so user can do activity he wants (and authorize) to do without any confusion !
What you have explained is very simple and deep thinking, however i doubt many folks may take it as SEO speaking: “Why your site should be top in Google Search !”
-Raxit
On a different note,
Try google/yahoo/live search for
“Mumbai to delhi flight on October 1, 2 adult” and hit enter !
On clicking first 500 links, did you get the page (not site !) you wanted to Get ???
-Raxit
@Mahesh, @Ravi Thanks!
@Raxit My next post will cover where all traditional search fails.
interesting article indeed , i would like to add one more thing Reading your post I reliased that i am doing somewhat simillar thing on my desktop ever since i installed Google Desktop .
Does that mean File System is dead ? we can have a single directory like GMail? search don’t sort . are we ready for one directory per drive scenario ? I guess not .
Because a lot of other operation make sense only when its categorized in a directory structure . a directory structure shows how we classify the stuff in our head
when it comes to Websites navigation what we are essentially doing is trying to navigate in a structure which is designed on the basis of how the other guy classify the stuff in his head
some amount of problem is bound to happen . so we use a brute force methode of search .
other point where navigation is needed is non textual data (video ,Pics etc ) because we don’t have a good enough technology to search for them so Navigation structure acts like a Meta DATA for them .
that makes me think if there is any implementation of a flat file system based on TAGs ? a Delicious for desktop ?
Prashant – we follow a similar architecture for organizing content contributed by people on Kreeo.
- No RDBMS, storage on files system + xml descriptors for every object.
- all queries for data are directed to XMLs or through the search engine
- all communication happens using XMLs only
- the BOK framework provides a method to capture the context w.r.t to a concept or any item posted into a concept BOK.
- BOK also provides a different way of navigating information around a topic/concept
Prashant,
In my opinion, search is not a replacement of good old navigation. It is complimentary to what was already there.
For search to work, I must have a pretty good idea to begin with where I want to go. The better idea I have, the better it gets. Search won’t be able to help me much with “database download”, however, it can really help me with “mysql download”. I have to be very specific with search.
But I don’t always have that much information. Then search doesn’t work. And that’s called “re-search”. There, the good old navigation method works.
So, it would be a catastrophe to dump everything in a flat file at this stage.
In future, there is a possibility to auto-generate a navigation information on the fly based on the content of the data. But we are not there yet.
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I think you summarized it when you said that search wins over navigation when you’re looking for something specific but don’t know how to get there, but navigation is still an important means of exploring once you’re on a site and are curious about what other features it has to offer.
As far as getting new users on your site is concerned, however, you first have to get them onto your site, and *then* get them interested in what else you have to offer. This is a key lesson as far as online marketing is concerned. I expand on it in my post here, do check it out: http://www.moneyvidya.com/blog/startup-essentials-on-the-web-content-is-marketing/
Gautam Kshatriya
gautam.kshatriya@moneyvidya.com
http://www.moneyvidya.com/blog