Ugh, this is not right.
Written: Sep 16 '00
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My review is not from the side of a user, rather from a webpage owner's point of view. I have used this service enough to know how it works.
You type in a questions like "How do I change the oil on my car?" or more complex questions like trivia questions and such. Any ol' question and Jeeves will try to answer it.
When you hit enter, it'll bring up a list of possible answers to your question. The answers are simply links to web sites around the internet that have been spidered and rated to subjects. Jeeves hopes to bring up the best web site match for your question entered.
You select the 'best answer' and the page will open where you can read it. Pretty simple.
Lots of people write from the user's point of view. Well as a web programmer I have a different view of this 'search engine'.
When an answer (web page link) is clicked on what happens? Jeeves loads the website you clicked on into a frame! The top is about 100-150 pixels and it has the AskJeeves logo and search information. The bottom frame has the website 'answer' you just clicked on. What's wrong here?
The set up makes it looks very much like the 'answers' are actually part of the AskJeeves website. A new user may not always understand this. On top of that... since the website is contained in a frame, they make it a reminder to go back to AskJeeves site and continue there.
Hello Jeeves.. webmasters want their visitors to spend time at their websites and explore. This is why they go to all the hard work to make their pages! Not to make it look like a single page answer and return to Jeeves site to do something else!
Example? My website has an extensive FAQ section on Furby. It is comprised up of a FAQ index that lists all the questions a user might have when at my site. When a person clicks on the question, they are sent to a page with the question repeated and the answer below it. This is a normal set up and many websites use this technique.
AskJeeves actually uses the answer pages as answer pages for the AskJeeves search engine! That just is NOT right. That's almost stealing. When it's suck in frames.. who will know that site that answer section really belongs to? Newbies won't. I consider AskJeeves a Newbie search engine because it's so AOListically basic.
I often don't have the opinion of the majority and I have a feeling this is one of them. But having a site online for many years has taught me many things. No webmaster can appreciate a site like AskJeeves because of it's presentation of others work and how it will use any part of anyone's website as it's own. Putting another site in frames also disallows a user to bookmark/add that site to their favorites list. It is extremely disrespectful to the owners of other websites and totally unprofessional.
How do I think it should be? Why quite simple, like any other search engine, it should open the entire link in a new window, or over the parent window as it's own site - no frames or changes from the AskJeeves site. No other search engine does what Jeeves does - because it is unprofessional of a search engine to do!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Furbster
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Location: La Habra, CA
Reviews written: 51
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Web developer/programmer who lives in CA with two Aibo puppies, Spaz and Ziggy.
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