Searching vs. navigating Oct26 '05

Some major changes are going to be implemented, soon - at this site. I am tired of the "blog" format.

I’m not talking about the act of blogging - I’m talking about how it’s laid out, on screen. I am tired of entries stacked on top of one another; I am tired of scrolling downward; I am tired of one-off, static sections.

If you’re confused at what I just said - don’t feel bad. So am I. These are just random ideas floating through my head.

My Base section already illustrates where I want to go with all of my content. I prefer this aggregated merging of content - all viewable instantly (at a glance), without too much scrolling, and still plenty of room for creativity.

Having divided sections (Blog, Music, Contact) is starting to really bore me. Why do I need "clear-cut" sections, at all? Why can’t there just be one main page, where everything is accessible?

This is where I want to go. Obviously, there’d still be permanent URI’s - but the majority of my content could reside in one spot.

No more navigation links

I want to get away from navigation links, and sub-navigation links. They are tiresome to manage and to display effectively. I hate having to allow my navigation links to be displayed on every page, and I just have no creativity for them anymore - despite some interesting techniques in CSS, such as Doug Bowman’s Sliding Doors technique.

Of course, you’re probably thinking, "If there’s no navigation links, Matt - duh - well... how do we get from page to page? Moron."

I’ll tell you how. Search. This is the future of all web content, anyway. Hell, it’s not the future for some of us - it’s the present.

All search, and nothing but search

Some examples? I don’t use "bookmarks" in browsers anymore - and I haven’t for years. Why? Well... when I think of a topic, person, or idea - all I have to do is remember a few keywords - pop that into Google, and bam - I can easily get back to the site I was thinking of. That... instead of having hundreds of bookmarks, collecting dust, and just generally a waste of space.

The point is - you don’t need to see something, unless you need it. After all, you can’t miss what you don’t know, right?

This is the idea behind technologies like Spotlight. Instead of digging through folders - you can let the search do the work for you. I’m also thinking along the lines of this Wired article on folders in Mac OS X.

I feel like I’m veering off-topic here, so I will try to re-gain ground.

I want users (and myself) to be able to find things via search - all search, and nothing but search.

Categories: Search , Web Development

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Hmm, sometimes you just feeling like browsing, though... ... Read more.

Yeah, I'm with Jennifer on that. I've been thinking about radically changing the way my own blog is organised, too -- because it's a personal site, ... Read more.

Josh, very good points. In the immediate future, I'd just like implement a search feature, that searches through blog ... Read more.

matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.