Today I discovered Google’s worst ever product: SearchMash
As it turns out, “Mash” is quite a appropriate - a mish-mash of badly thought out ideas, “new” technologies and rubbish UI. It comes across as one of those god-awful Web 2.0 search engines like A9 that seem to think that search is glamorous, operating under the mistaken belief that people actually want to spend more time on the search engines than the pages they’re searching for.
Let’s have a quick look through their features page. I’ll translate:
- You don’t have to have your cursor in the search box to start typing your query: Great, the day that text input focusing was a feature worth shouting about came and went in 1997
- Click the green URL of a web result to open a menu of options for viewing the URL or refining your query: Do YOU know anyone that really thinks pop-up menus are a good idea? I’d rather not have to have an extra click and move to see the cache, please. This feature has already kicked me once - if I click on a URL I expect to be taken to that URL, not to be presented with an annoying menu.
- You can see the top three image results next to your web results: Way to eat my bandwidth, Google. How often would I want images of what I’m searching for? Hint: not often. If I’m searching for loans, probably the last thing I want is to see people with fistfulls of dollars.
- Click the number next to a result and drag it around to reorder: Thought you’d best bite the bullet and admit your relevancy sucks, yeah? I can’t wait to start abusing this when they use it to help with rankings. A less scrupulous SEO would probably use this to mislead clients. Personally I prefer to reorder SERPS by entering the market
- Click the “more results” bar at the bottom of the page (or hit the space bar) to load more results and automatically scroll down to view them: This is a REAL stinker - we had this in Zippy beta for all of a day before we junked it. For a start it’s very distracting and unweidly, but more importantly it’s totally broken by the back button. Try clicking on a #11+ result and then going back. Nice one GOOG.
I personally filled out the yes/no buttons on the features page. Honestly, I click “yes” to just the first one.
Seems like even Google would rather not be associated with this little stinker - the design bears no corporate branding, and the affiliation with Google can only be found on the whois and privacy page. Come on Google, at least own up to your mistakes.
And in case anyone’s wondering: Yes, they do appear to be using G’s search platform.
35 Comments
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6th October 2006 @ 17:17
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[...] As I am likely to do on any given day I have a habit of reading the thoughts of others in this ever growing industry. As I was browsing Threadwatch today I noticed a post by David Naylor (whose SEO Blog I enjoy reading - smart stuff in there) regarding Searchmash. As I read through his criticisms of searchmash, some of which I agree with and others I disagree with, I was compelled to write a response to his editorial on this interesting little project. [...]
6th October 2006 @ 21:19
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Uh, oh - you talked bad about it and now it’s broken.
6th October 2006 @ 21:42
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Well, I think you’re being a little harsh.
Mistakes are a way to learn. Play around in a playground to find out what things are mistakes. Even if it’s stupid, there’s no harm done.
6th October 2006 @ 22:23
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Lol, how can a company like Google honestly claim that not having to have the cursor in the search box be a feature!
7th October 2006 @ 00:31
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how is it a mistake if someone stumbled across something they are doing for research/testing? i love it when people bash products that arent even real products. way to go.
7th October 2006 @ 01:14
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[...] Deze features heeft daveN dan vertaalt in zijn eigen SEO blackhat taal in het artikel: Google’s worst product ever. Ik denk dat het uiteraard maar om één ding gaat en dat is testen en data verzamelen, zoals altijd. Tags:blackhat google seo website review zoekmachine [...]
7th October 2006 @ 09:02
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In Firefox, the ‘no cursor in input box’ doesn’t even work! It simply opens up the find menu option of the browser. Sheesh…
7th October 2006 @ 12:17
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FWIW, I don’t think you’re exaggerating. It looks like some Googler’s 20%-project, and TBH that someone should seek advice with another someone for starters.
7th October 2006 @ 12:40
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[...] In case you havn’t heard… Google recently rolled out SearchMash, “a mish-mash of badly thought out ideas” according to DaveN. [...]
7th October 2006 @ 17:50
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Don’t get your knickers in a not !
It’s a proof of concept. 8th October 2006 @ 07:14
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Your just mad because your not making lots of money off your stupid little blog
8th October 2006 @ 07:15
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Err - meant to say Don’t get your knickers in a “knot”
8th October 2006 @ 07:16
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No shit retard it’s a website they made to test out iffy ideas, it’s not their dirty little secret. Great journalism, I hope you get lots of ad money with your dig whoring. Fuck you and the horse you road in on.
8th October 2006 @ 09:32
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I think you are totally missing the point here. It’s not a product, it’s an experiment. Google doesn’t want it’s brand affecting the experiment, hence the “searchmash”. Clearly it’s the most sensible thing do, not to introduce untested features into google.com, but let the interested early adopters try them out and provide valuable feedback.
8th October 2006 @ 10:19
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Every company has to test *potential* features. SearchMash is by no means an end product, and it certainly is not at a stage to be criticised like this. I’m sure the best Google Search features they have on the drawing board, would be kept behind closed doors..
8th October 2006 @ 13:05
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Yawn.. a bunch of stinky points poorly made. Ever think that theres a reason that these features are on SearchMash.com and not Google.com? Because its a test bed.. a way to try out new features and experiment with new ideas. Ok some of them probably wont work out in the long run but to have a mindless rant about it is completely pointless and besides the point.
8th October 2006 @ 17:47
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Funny, I typed in searchsmash.com - do you think goog will have a problem with this?
8th October 2006 @ 21:01
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[...] Einen etwas auführlicheren Veriss mittels Blog findet man hier: DaveN, Google’s Worst Ever Product, 6.10.2006) [...]
8th October 2006 @ 21:39
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Wow… you decided to rant on about a search engine which Google is using as a testing bed for new features. Before you decide to scream about this search engine think about this: You have a site with millions of visitors every day. The web is changing and once big companies are falling into the dirt. To give your site some more ‘pizazz’, something new to help out visitors, you first need to test it to see the publics responce. So you make a new search website to test features, and you do not announce it as part of your own. Sure in the legal documentation you declare it but not everywhere. I mean, every SERVICE (not product, they do not sell goods) google has released they have publicly told everyone about. Google mail, Google Earth, etc. etc. Why would they make another search engine when their own is ranked number one in the world?
Maybe you should think before you spread your slander.
8th October 2006 @ 22:20
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I probably agree with some of your points and say SearchMash is not all that fantastic but this is a test website. Standards of google is defined by what you see under http://www.google.com and frankly no one complains about the UI there. I would say google people are experts at building UIs.
9th October 2006 @ 00:51
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Dave, you’ve got guts and I applaud you for showing the negative comments as well! At least you add insight and information, there are way too many blogs out here that just rehash what everyone else has read on MC Blog or some other popular source.
9th October 2006 @ 15:27
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JLH .. you mean some people spoke ill of me ..
DaveN9th October 2006 @ 15:32
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“you first need to test it to see the publics responce”
Josh - this is part of the public’s response, so I don’t know how you can attack it so much!
Maybe you should think before you post a stupid comment.
9th October 2006 @ 15:44
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25
Actually, the one place that Google really admits to owning it is the whois data. Yep, that’s them alright. Suprised you didn’t mention that one, Dave. You’re slipping.
10th October 2006 @ 06:52
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lol Brian .. i have to leave something for peole to find :0
DaveN
10th October 2006 @ 08:57
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Google always comes out with something really cool but seems this thing is based on ajax which shows results on the same page, i still doubt how will google make money with this type of search pages because the visitors will be always staying on the same page
10th October 2006 @ 10:48
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28
David’s worst post ever.
10th October 2006 @ 22:30
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Hmm.. Seems to be a rip off of Surch.com
13th October 2006 @ 09:17
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Quite possibly your worst article ever. Get your head out of the dirt and think for a second about the purpose of this website and not what it is on the surface.
13th October 2006 @ 13:43
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[...] Называется он - SearchMash. IP домена принадлежит google, в компании подтвердили что это тестовый полигон для новых технологий в движке поисковика.Мне он понравился, намного удобнее, но вот DaveN‘у он не понравился. [...]
14th October 2006 @ 21:25
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When I click on “more web pages »” it adds another 10 results, but when I click again, the link doesn’t work anymore. There’s no way to browse pages either.
In the top right it still says “showing 1 - 10″ when there are 20 results showing.15th October 2006 @ 00:38
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[...] My good friend daveN has a little writeup about how he hates it. [...]
26th October 2006 @ 09:56
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Hey! I couldn’t even function without Searchmash! For folks with 12.5 - 18.5 kbps dialup speeds (Verizon won’t repair the ancient phone lines on this rural road, even though this town’s the bedroom community for Dartmouth College), Searchmash is a tremendous boon. It loads quickly, returns results quickly, and best of all…BEST of all…clicking on “more web pages” responds quickly with more links - far more quickly than waiting for another page to load. Is there anyone here who uses dialup? How about dialup so slo-o-ow that it operates at speeds of 1/3 that of normal dialup (averaging 15 kbps against average dialup speeds of 49.5 kbps)? We dialup victims NEED a reward, and Searchmash is IT…!
3rd December 2006 @ 19:49
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[...] Controversy sparks when David Naylor posts a blog about searchmash.com, a new search engine Google is testing. [...]
13th June 2007 @ 21:28
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