mediajunk

Like most internet users, I hate seeing the "HTTP: 404" message. You know the one -- it means that the page you are looking for can't be found (because it no longer exists, or was moved, or never existed in the first place).

404 pages are actually customisable, and I like when sites take the trouble to do this. Of course, I intend to create my own 404 pages too -- it's one of those things that's way, way down my to-do list. It would probably take just a little longer than the time it's taking to write this entry, but strangely that doesn't move it up the list.

So what's stopping me? Maybe it's because I can't top this 404 - p0rn not found page.

I'll probably just end up stea ... eh, "borrowing" one from this collection of the web's best 404s.

Last year Sergey Brin said that Google had no plans to introduce video search, and listed off the various reasons why.

So how to explain the launch earlier today of Google Video Search?!

Was Brin lying? So much for Google's "don't be evil" motto! (Unless lying isn't evil any more. Hmmmm. It's so hard to keep up.)

In truth, the search is limited to close-caption TV segments from US networks. This is another of Google's technology seeds -- it's anyone's guess as to which will bear fruit.

Alan Williamson recaps a presentation on user experience given by Google's Marissa Mayers and gives us some notable trivial. Here are my favourites:

The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. Infact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.

Due to the sparseness of the homepage, in early user tests they noted people just sitting looking at the screen. After a minute of nothingness, the tester intervened and asked 'Whats up?' to which they replied "We are waiting for the rest of it". To solve that particular problem the Google Copyright message was inserted to act as a crude end of page marker.

The infamous "I feel lucky" is nearly never used. However, in trials it was found that removing it would somehow reduce the Google experience. Users wanted it kept. It was a comfort button.