14 DAY TRIAL // Google has debuted a new Advanced Search page. The changes are mostly visual, the site definitely looks better, but it suffers from some usability regressions.
The Advanced Search page offers options to narrow and target a search necessary if the regular search page, even with the filters, doesn't help you find what you're looking for.
Most users don't even know it exists, but it serves a purpose for a lot of people. Still, the low traffic figures means that it's not a priority for Google.
It hasn't gotten a major update in a long time and even small changes are far and few between.
But that has been for the best so far, since Advanced Search worked pretty much like users expected. That's no longer the case, the page has gotten a major update.
It finally falls inline with Google's site-wide design being applied to all of its products, as Google Operating System discovered.
However, even though this is Google, a company with thousands of some of the best software engineers on the planet, the page looks like rush job. Considering the Gmail iPhone app Google just released, it seems it's becoming a trend at the company.
The main problem is that all of the drop-down menus are built with JavaScript. They look very nice and they're the same across all platforms, but keyboard shortcuts no longer work.
Users that turn to the Advanced Search page are the type of people that use keyboard shortcuts extensively.
With the new drop-down menus, the only option is to scroll up or down until you find what you're looking for. With big lists such as the country selection, it's clearly not the best or the fastest approach.
Google can and probably will fix this. It's hardly a technical issue that is somehow beyond Google's expertise. The problem is, Google has gotten used to shipping first and fixing later. While this works for big projects like Gmail or Google+, it's just lazy for something simple such as the Advanced Search page.