<p-lg>From Wodtke and Govella, there were a couple things that interested me:The first was this quote:<p-lg>
“Search must be magic. That means having all the answers, not just links to Web sites that might. Search is a question whose answer is not always a Web site (or an article). When the best result is not a link, you have a chance to create a truly magical experience for your users and deliver beyond their wildest dreams."
<p-lg>I thought this was interesting because it draws out the human experience of searching. Users aren’t looking for a link when they search, they’re looking for an answer. The faster that your search engine can get them to an answer, the better their experience and potential engagement with your product. Thus you don’t want to just serve up links, you want to serve up answers.<p-lg>
<p-lg>Related to this idea was the idea of creating shortcuts, or widgets. You see these a lot in Google searches if you search for weather in a certain area or do a calculation. The author states <p-lg>
"These shortcuts are hard to measure, because unlike links, no one clicks. The user behavior looks much like failure—a query is made, and no link is clicked.”
<p-lg>I think this is interesting because at first glance at your data, it looks like your search engine failed, when in fact it may have served up a better answer faster, just by using one of these shortcuts.<p-lg>