Pretty but useless? That's one possible assessment of Grokker, a java
application that turns Yahoo! search results into a multi-step graphic presentation. Graphic search results asre
problematic. A simple list of text links really isn't a broken format, and you can't help wondering what the graphical
designers are trying to fix. Of course, mapped results of local searches are a good application of a graphic interface.
And the newsmap is a tremendous alternative to Google's
display of its news service. Even if basic search results do not usually benefit from redesign, I'm always interested
in snazzy displays.
Grokker's problem is that it creates additional clicks—lots of them—between you and the target pages of the search
result. Furthermore, the circular blobs of results are not particularly informative at first, until you roam the mouse
cursor over them and get the detailed pop-ups. When you finally trudge through the three-step zooming process and
select a target site, Grokker puts a regular text link in the page margin; you must click that link before
finally getting to the page. In other words, the search results become all about Grokker, not about the results.
1. Frankly I don't see the need for it. I think it would make Yahoo! harder to use and thus in the end drive people away to google.
I like the way Yahoo! is right now. I have some problems loading the My Yahoo! page on Maxthox, but that's a small issue, so all in all I would just keep it like it is now.
Posted at 5:45AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Theodore Craig