Commenting on Michael Fleischner’s professional marketing blog Google Preview. Are You kidding? Retrieved from: <http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com/2010/11/google-preview-are-you-kidding.html>
In his blog, Michael shares his opinions about the Preview feature that Google recently added to their search site. In Michael’s view, the new feature is not only useless, but may even lead to a negative web search experience. However, I think Google actually does a good job with this new feature, because the preview function saves people a lot of time and enables them to get to the right information without having to open and close too many websites.
I compare the convenience of the Google preview feature to a feature offered on many sites selling clothes. When you search a site for a new outfit for example, you are usually face with a plethora of small pictures of items and links which offer more information; if we move the mouse over a certain picture, a larger version of the picture pops up and we can have a closer look at the item without having to open the whole link for the product description. The ability to zoom in is convenient and timesaving.
Since Google, one of the largest search engines, is actively used by people searching for answers or information or students doing research, the preview feature enables readers to quickly scan the content of a webpage; the preview shows titles and keywords in enlarged letters and it is easy to get a general idea about an article. The search for appropriate websites becomes easier and quicker. I think this feature will be used by a lot of people.
(Posted on March 10th)