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Google does many things well, one of these things is maintaining a clean user interface. Part of the benefits of this interface is that it allows for very little confusion. It can be frustrating when navigation jumps around and elements appear on some pages and not others. Being the masters of the clean UI, it surprised me when I noticed that Google Universal search results seem to sport inconsistent navigation links.
I did a search for "yacht". (No, I'm not mulling a purchase. Lake Erie isn't all that hospitable at the moment.)
Notice the highlighted navigation above? The first page of results (when looking at the default ten results) shows Web | Images | Video | Shopping. This SERP has images, a YouTube video and the obligatory Wikipedia entry among the results.
The second page of results has a couple of videos - sort of about yachts - and a Flickr page in the mix. But wait, the same sub-navigation elements are included, but in a different order! This time it reads Web | Video | Shopping | Images.
Ok. What is behind door number three?
This page has one more video, and the navigation has remained the same as the last page. But don't get too used to it. Page four has one more twist.
This page has no video results, and the video link in the navigation disappears. I guess this makes sense, on some level. If you are looking at a results page with videos, you might think "Let's see more!" and use the link to refine your search. But this logic fails me when I realize that there have been no shopping results in the first four pages. At least none that are obviously pulled from Google Product Search.
What does all of this mean? Google Universal Search might have results from many planets in the Google universe, but the results are most certainly not universally consistent!
About the Author: Matt KeoughMatt has broad experience in traditional and online marketing, with a particular focus on the manufacturing sector. He loves discovering strategies and tactics that result in big wins. Keough is known for his creative and sometimes amusing analogies and once subjected the Internet to animated GIFs. He is the father of four boys and has watched many hours of baseball with his wife, Joyce.
Comments
3 Comments so far3 Responses to “Google Universal Plays Hide & Seek With Navigation”
It clearly shows that Google doesn't have a firm handle on content delivery systems.
Even Google has chinks in its armor. Very interesting.
I still wonder if there is a method to the madness. Did they drop the video link after videos stopped showing up in SERP? Does this demonstrate that videos either rank in the top 30 or not a all?