OK I'm the lead developer (but not owner) of this search engine. I'm looking for feedback on nearly all aspects of the search engine, with the following being highly important to me - The results, how good are they? - The Speed of the search - The Features, enough to make you switch yet? - The Design. Does it work in your browser? - Overall Comments Leave me a URL to your review post and I'll gladly review your site. The below is the about URL, which should give you a rushed idea behind what I am trying to archive from the search engine. Your feedback will be highly valued. So for that I thank you! http://mse360.com/about.php http://mse360.com
The obvious problem you're going to have are all the comparisons to Google so you really need to stand out. Design: A little too dark and cluttered for my taste. I like the layout of the results and the use of wikipedia and blogs. You might want to bump up the importance of the blog results and minimize the images. The images seem to take up too much real estate and they're a little too small. Speed: Too slow, the wikipedia results came up first followed by the images. It took several seconds for the actual serach results to show up. I thought it hadn't found anything at first. Results: More information is needed for each results. There are too many short blurbs and keywords making it tough to tell what result works best for what you're looking for. I searched on "SOA". The wikipedia and blog results were interested but the search terms were not.
- The results, how good are they? They're fine, but if you're going to display Wikipedia results separately, make sure they don't come up in the regular search column aswell. I searched boredom and this happened. - The Speed of the search Compared to other search engines, slow. I think you should priortise getting the regular search results up first, and only once they're loaded should the others take resources. Maybe that'd increase the speed slightly? When you ask to see more results, it takes too long. - The Features, enough to make you switch yet? I like the 3 column idea, it's a nice change. Maybe you should look into getting customised homepages for users, like iGoogle - that could well keep people coming back. When you ask for more results, I think you should look at the next lot clearing the current results, with a 'See previous results' link in a box at the top - otherwise the page could go on forever, and it's just going to cause a bigger load time and worse scroll lag (talking of which, is quite bad anyway). - The Design. Does it work in your browser? I have a fairly big resolution, and as a result the default background image doesnt touch the right side of my screen - there's a margin of about an inch. If it was set to align to the right, I wouldn't notice the margin on the left, as it's a gradient. The others start to repeat. The default background isn't listed to change back to. When I chose a different background, it didn't respond on that page, unless I clicked it twice. I think the homepage would look slightly tidier if you left a break inbetween each line of text. I think you should see what it's like when you get rid of the grey box behind the search form aswell. Spelling mistake on the about page - under 'Virus! Oh No!' says 'VWe' instead of 'We'. The options and search pages say "Site Name - [Options]", instead of the actual site name. Other than that, everything design wise works fine. - Overall Comments I like the idea behind the site, and think it will work. Obviously it's beta and I think the main thing that needs to improve is the speed. I've been really detailed here, because I think that's what you were after. Keep working on it, as it's always good to see something fresh in an market that's dominated by one look. If you have time, please review my site (thread here) - don't worry about being this detailed! Hope all that helps.
Ok I agree with making sure the Wikipedia results don’t show in the main results, that’s an error that I have now fixed. Let me know if this is a improvement for you! It’s still on the testing server, so speed is a issue I fully agree. I have now prioritized the result gathering, which I think has worked well, and I’ve also increased the speed slightly, let me know if these are marked improvements. We will slowly adapt to a more customized homepage, the main thing we want to focus on the search first, but customized homepages is something very much in the spectrum of things to do! Regarding clearing the current results, I tend to agree. I’m now working on a page based system for the results. The background image needs tobe sorted, as clearly it is not working as intended. I’m going to get some custom backgrounds designed, so that should solve some of the problem. I will also add the default background so it can be changed back to and sort out having to click twice. I removed the grey box but decided it looked to randomly placed without it. I will try and get the homepage looking cleaner. Spelling mistake will be fixed right after I’ve had dinner! Thanks. The idea is very much in its easily stages. Speed will be improved even more, it won’t ever be AS fast as Google, but we can get it pretty darn near I hope! I thank you for your in-depth review, I hope you will see how I personally will take the changes you’ve suggested and use them. I will review your site straight after I’ve had something to eat! The design is dark on the first design, but if the user prefers a lighter background (and thus a lighter design in general) they can change the background image. I’ll try and find a way to make it a little less cluttered. Images will be changed on par with your comments, so thanks for that! Agreed. I’ve changed as much as I can to get a better speed, and hopfully this is reflected in that. Results are cached so the more popular a term the faster it will get. Ok this is something I will look into straight after I’ve had something to eat, I agree it can be a problem so I’ll look into some creative ways of solving it.
nice site but you need to have a logo on top of the search results. and a lighter design as many monitors may appear dark
I Searched the term "work out" using firefox I like the site....everyone else is right, it is a little dim for my my liking. However, the speed was fine (less than a second). One point i have is when you click on more results, the page refreshes targeted to the top which means i have to scroll down to find where the "second" or "third" page is which is obviously really annoying so see if you can target to where the user wants. Another point is your list counts the separator, ie : goes from result #10 to result #12 Overall i like very much, and i wish you guys all the best of luck. Don't forget us if you hit those billions
I do agree the site is looking a little web 1.0 \ dark and gloomy, something which I am setting out to change. Speed is never fine, improving it is still important . The method of paging will be changed. I decided I don’t like the ajax scroll system that it uses, and the bug you noticed is something that won’t be in the next version. I thank you for your comments, sure won’t forget you guys when we hit the billions, mainly because I’m the developer, not the owner!
Ok if I can, I'd like some feedback on this pre-alpha design I've created. It removes scroll lag altogether, cleans up and looks much smarter. http://mse360.com/Betas/TimesArrow/
I love it! That's a massive improvement on the first one, no longer feels clunky. I'd like to see it with the link to see more results though. That has fixed every problem I had first time around. I don't think you need all those snazzy options (backgrounds, etc). PS - Please go and review my site when you can, really could do with some more comments on it!
wow buddy you work fast. Couple of points : where is the more search results button?? and i think you should move the search box back to the center of the page and change it from "submit" to "search"..people are dumb
Now added. Went with a little more default method that before. Now the images, blogs & web all change pages, unlike below when it was just the web
by the way if you want me to shut up tell me and i will...but i like the site and i like the idea so i am gonna keep sending you suggestions until you tell me otherwise. I see you changes the submit to search....cool (ill take credit ) Couple more points i noticed... The search results are are more accurate than the image results : For example when i search the term Generation Kill...(its a TV series by HBO), the search results are relevant, the image results though aren't. Try the difference between your site and one of the other big ones. Also, I think you should limit the url of the result to a certain number of characters. Instead of trying to explain what i mean, search "Generation Kill" without the quotes and you'll see what i mean. The first result of the blog post distorts the look. Gl
Indeedo! Can't say I've heard of Generation Kill, looks like quite a good show so I might watch that tonight, but in any case I've been making the results a little more accurate, let me know if you see it as a marked improvement! Agreed! Sorting that out now. Loving your feedback, it's invaluable, so keep it coming!
lol ok ill keeping them coming...but not right now since its not loading where are you making room for all the ppc results; dont say you dont have any or else i am gonna accuse you for working for an ex-googler
The Adverts are still being planned. That said I suspect we shall have them like the below. The site is now back up . Sorry for the down time.