on-site search - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

Former head of BBC News Online Bob Eggington has launched a video search engine called searchbbcvideo.com to allow users to scour the BBC archives for clips.

The company claims that the new site it does a better job of finding BBC videos than the corporation’s own online search tools.

How difficult can it be? It's only a text box and a button, after all.

It is, however, its very simplicity that makes the search box such a great example of the power of design patterns.

What can go wrong when we design a search box (what are the antipatterns)? What are the key elements of best practice in the design of a search box that enable us to avoid these pitfalls? And how many e-commerce search boxes comply with all aspects of the design pattern that we've just developed? For something so apparently simple, it comes as a bit of a surprise that the answer to that last question is none!