Daily Tech Bits

Search Engines Rule The World, Says Jakob Neilsen

Web usability guru Jakob Neilsen has said that search engines rule the world. He was discussing the changing behavior of web users compared with almost a decade ago. Instead of going to a home page and exploring sites gradually, he says, most web users find what they want through a search engine and go directly to the page they want. This is part of what he describes as ‘more selfish’ behavior on the part of web users.

Most web users are now used to well designed websites and are unimpressed by the bells and whistles, especially if they make the site load more slowly. This is bad news for all those who think that adding widgets makes their sites more appealing to visitors.

Neilsen says that although search engines rule, many people still don’t find exactly what they are looking for, so it’s a challenge for search engines to do even better. (Full story here.)

Google Profiles

Google is rolling out profiles with personal information on Google products you use. Google Operating System reports that these profiles will e integrated into all Google products so you have one identity across the full range of Google services.

A Google Profile is simply how you represent yourself on Google products — it lets you tell others a bit more about who you are and what you’re all about. You control what goes into your Google Profile, sharing as much (or as little) as you’d like.

Profiles can contain information like nickname, occupation, location, links, photos and a short description. These profiles are public and they are searchable which means people can find you if you use your real name.

Is Google trying to get social?

Google Now Indexing Blogger

You would think that since Google owns Blogger that they would have been indexing Blogger images all along but apparently that was not the case. Google has finally managed to get it’s indexing spiders to properly access and index the Picasa Web Albums. Reportedly the problem was caused by the way Picasa names it’s folders.

Any photos uploaded prior to August 2006 are still unable to be indexed, and there is no timetable for this issue to be addressed.

Source: Google Operating System