Yovav (Jay) Meydad's Personal Blog

While doing a search on eBay I noticed an invitation to try their new search at the Playground. I took the plunge and immediately liked the new experience and that fact it became cleaner, more visual and with better search refinement controls – just like how a product search should be (see Like.com, thefind.com, PriceGrabber.com and others).

Here are a few additional observations on the new interface:

• The active search criteria is clearly displayed above the result set. The user does not have to guess which options are on. In the old version it was more difficult and less clear – the user had to look at the drop downs located at the long left column (often this required scrolling). In the new interface, it is also very easy to remove a criteria using the red [x]. One things that would be a nice addition is the ability to add multiple options from the same category where it is applicable (for example – Brand or Technology)

• As can be seen in the image above, a new mode for viewing results was added called “Snapshot”. It displays a tile of product images and when mousing over an image additional information is being displayed — just like Snap’s Snap Shots. This makes me wonder – is “Snap Shot” becoming a generic term (and verb) similar to what happened to Xerox and Google…?

• The “Refine your Search” left column was redesigned and is now cleaner, shorter and displays most of the options above the fold line. This was achieved by moving some of the less frequently used options into a popup window (although some design work is still required to make sure all options are visible and there is not need to scroll), the usage of cleaner controls like the price slider (very popular on travel search sites like Kayak and Farechase) and simple controls instead of check boxes and drop downs.

Bottom line – Kudos to the eBay team for creating an improved search experience. My only suggestion to you – add a “Filter by Color” option where applicable (Clothing, Shoes, Accessories and more).

Update: Renee VonBergen, a sr. manager for buyer experience at eBay, corrected me – a color slider is available in certain categories. The direction is really good but could be improved:

• It would be helpful to see it on more products – some people pick their cell phone or guitar by the color
• If you pick a color that returns no results, you get to something that is similar to a dead-end. In this case it would be helpful (for both eBay and the user) to get recommendations to similar products (“We could not find green shoes but we have blue ones”)

SearchMash, the playground for Google engineers keen to invent new technologies and interfaces, has just released a Flash-based version that uses Snap.com’s website previews.

The more I use it, it feels like Snap.com. Ain’t previews great when you browse and search the web!

Read more here: http://blog.snap.com/2007/10/25/breaking-major-news/

Or try the new SearchMash

“Are you ready to spend a whole day, today (Tuesday), without using Google?” asks Richard MacManus of Read/Write Web. I am. I hope you are too.

So when you look for an alternative search engine to spend your day with, try Snap, the visual search engine.

We recently added a Classic mode to ease users into the “search with previews” experience. The Classic mode displays a traditional “10 blue links” SERP with Snap Shots, so you get to see what’s behind the link.

When you feel ready for the real thing switch to the Enhanced mode to enjoy large & rich previews, keyboard shortcuts (use up & down arrows to quickly surf thru the list of results) & Keyword suggestions and more.

And if you really like the experience, try Snap Image Search and install a Snap toolbar.

Happy searching:

1:47 A.M.
Jack trains his gun when Nadia and the agents enter. He demands a guarantee that Audrey will be safe. Suddenly, Audrey mumbles the word “Bloomfield.” Jack explains that she’s answering where she was held. Dr. Bradley tells Nadia that the word could mean nothing. (24, Episode Guide: 1:00 – 2:00 AM)

I never imagined Bloomfield will break into prime time TV in the US, a country where Baseball is religion and Football is a game played using the hands. The creators of 24 picked a fine place for the last 3 episods.

If you want to experience the real thing you’d have to visit Tel Aviv on a Saturday night, when Maccabi plays. Make sure you sit in gate 11 or 13. 

Till then, Go Jack!

Lijit is a a blog search engine that uses people, content and connections to influence on relevance of results.

They used data their spiders collect when visited over 8000 blogs to analyze the Widgetsphere and released thier findings a few days ago.

Below are a few highlights:

• Snap is leading the Search category with almost 50%!   The Snap Shotsstrategy pays off (Bloggers get free utility that enhances their site’s user experience, Users get a tool that saves them time while surfing the web, Snap gets search traffic and brand exposure).
• Beyond Snap, bloggers also love Google Analytics & even more they love Google Adsense (I am sure Google also loves the data collected from blogs in order to optimize the Adsense algos). One question that I ask myself is what do bloggers do based on their site analytics findings? Are they using the two services in conjunction? How many apply site optimization techniques and change the design in order to improve Google Adsense CTR? How many change their writing style to make thier posts shorter in order to keep information above the fold (when people read in detailed post mode, not just excerpts)?
• Although it is considered one of the most popular Web2.0 web sites, Digg badgets are available on only 1.5% of the blogs. I assume most of Digg’s traffic comes from other sources of information such as stories on large publications
• Twitteris in a similar position – lots of noise but only on about 2.5% of the blogs. On the other hand they are the 3rd leading content widget (after MyBlogLog and Flickr).
• 14 companies operate in the analytics category. Many are free of charge and not a clear plan for monetization. I am sure there will be some consolidation soon.
• I was a bit surprised to see meebome only at the 48th position. It might be related to the demographic of the sample site.

Last crazy idea – As this industry grows, and more and more companies enter the Widget space (check out the latest from Ebay), a financial institutation should create a Widget Companies/Categories ETF. This would be a nice interaction between the financial world & the blogesphere, and potentially another way to make money out of blogs.

You could spend over $25K on a Prius or change your home’s lights to Energy Saving Light Bulbs for a few hundreds $. But if you are looking for a free energy saver try out CO2 Saver, a lightweight program that makes it super easy to reduce electricity usage and to save on your electricity and cooling biils.

When your computer is idle CO2 Saver gets into action. It turns off the display, the hard-disk and the CPU. The less electricity produced, the fewer harmful emissions and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are released into the atmosphere.

One neat feature is the ability to see how much CO2 you’ve saved since installed (I will post from time to time updated stats), and how much everyone saved. If you are part of a ‘green group’ and using a group version (like Earth911 or Oceana) you will see how much CO2 was saved by all group’s members.

Organizations who would like to create a custom version should contact Snap and ask for one.

Check it out.

I was on the Expo floor at our booth pretty much most of the time. I had the opportunity to attend one session – Using Widget Syndication for Online Marketing and Measurement. Speakers were CEO of WidgetBox and Founder of Clearspring. Read/Write web has a good summary.