December 21, 2011

The Google News Search Box

The Google News homepage uses a special search box with a few interesting features. Google only shows a list of suggestions and doesn't use Google Instant, even if this feature is available for the Google News results pages. The last suggestion lets you search the web and you can use the up arrow key to select it or just press Shift+Enter. A similar feature is available in Gmail, but you can't use the Shift+Enter shortcut.


When Google redesigned Google News and other services, the "Web Search" button seemed extraneous and it was removed.

5 comments:

  1. Anything to make searches easier and better!

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  2. The thing about removing the web search button, and giving NO OPTION to keep it or not, is that I can no longer have Google News as my START PAGE. So that means I give up on Google News. It's OLD NEWS TO ME.

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  3. One aspect of the updated version of Google News I don't like is that it has added another step between performing a basic Google web search and then doing a Google News search of the same terms.

    For example, if I google "payroll tax cut" and then want to do the same search of the news outlets I must click the News tab at the top of the screen and then re-type "payroll tax cut." Before, all I had to do was click on the News tab and Chrome would retain the same terms from the basic web search--one click did it. A small annoyance, but I'm not sure why they wanted to change that.

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  4. I've also noticed the special news search options available via the dropdown menu ... I believe they experiment with it to see how people use it ... before Google will implement it on the homepage ;)

    What do you think?

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  5. Hey Harvey from Google, Do you remember when you posted this apology last may?

    "Hi all,

    Thank you for providing your feedback regarding the ability to search the Web from the Google News homepage. We understand how important this feature is for some users. Removing the button was an oversight on our part. After looking into it, we were able to revert the change. The 'Search the Web' button is now back on Google News. Thanks for you patience. We apologize for the inconvenience.

    Best,
    Harvey"

    Inconvenience is your middle name Harvey

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