I read a post yesterday about how in Japan, rather than putting a whole URL on an advert, they tend to use a search box with key words in it, so that if you search for those terms, the product will come up. There is some interesting discussion in the comments about how this relates to Japanese culture in particular, with increased use of internet-through-mobiles, and the problems of turning Japanese characters into URLs, and things like that. But the thing that struck me most is how it really is a sign of the ways in which people use the internet are changing, and how ubiquitous search has become.
Since I’ve started using del.icio.us I’ve tended to shy away from bookmarking sites on my computer, particularly at home. I have a relatively large list of bookmarks at work, as they’re quite specific, but at home I don’t have a single site bookmarked. But this does mean that I use search a lot. And not for complicated things. Often, it’s for desperately simple things, to the point where I’m guilty of searching for ‘maps’ or ‘calendar’ so that I can get to the Google variants of both. And yes, I know that they’re linked just from the top of the Google homepage, but in Firefox it’s quicker for me to search for them – I don’t even have to open up a new tab. Searching is a whole lot quicker than opening up a new tab/window and typing in the tedious ‘doubleyoudoublyoudoublyoudot’ of a URL, and that’s when you actually remember the whole thing. I’ve taken to using search as a giant, distributed search engine – so long as I can more or less remember what I’m looking for, chances are I’ll be able to find it.
I think I like the move towards search-oriented, rather than url-oriented advertising. Who knows, it might even help people develop better searching habits? If they can’t find what they want on the first try, they might be moved to searching a better way. What are your thoughts?
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March 28th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I’m waiting for the QR Codes.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
OOh, yes. How is it that Japan have had them for years and years, and yet barely anyone here even knows what they are yet? /sigh
March 28th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Well, they are way cooler than us for a start. One word – Godzilla.
March 28th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Actually reminds me of a semi related discussion I was having on the .mobi blog recently (with me arguing that there wasn’t any real value in the .mobi top level domain – except for the registrar’s coffers). But one of the points I made was that people as a rule no longer type in a url, they search, so people don’t care whether its dot com, dot net, dot uk, dot mobi they just care that they find what they are looking for. I was urged to rethink my assumption that mobile users don’t use direct navigation for finding content – especially for the big brands. I did, and still came to the conclusion that I was right.
March 28th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I too am lazy…when I want Streetmap, I Google streetmap, cos it’s quicker than typing the whole thing out.
But I do luuuurve me mah bookmarks – how else will I keep track of my utterly random finds!
Scott, I second that motion – I couldn’t less what ‘dot’ it is, as long as I find what I’m looking for.