Media: CNET looks at how Search Optimisation compromises Usability

'Basically, there's a natural friction between the way people think Web sites should be designed, and the way they almost have to be designed in order to make it in the race for page rankings. And in such a battle, design for search engines are destined to win, because it's just bad business to ignore a dog that size.' ends this article by Molly Wood at CNET.

Her argument is that search is the big dog; and that, more than standards, usability, or even aesthetics, drives the evolution of website design.

She goes on to consider search engine optimisation. 'At its best, SEO is a discipline that influences Web builders and designers to maximize their search engine results with some simple and uncontroversial changes. At its worst, though, the term includes a collection of questionable business practices, shady companies that promise clicks for cash and only sometimes deliver, and a tool that allows the proliferation of advertising-filled Web sites (free registration required) that do nothing but show up in search results and provide no information in exchange for ad impressions.'

It's creating quite a heated debate about standards-based design and usability vs. search methodology. Wood reckons usability will lose.

Associated Link: CNET: Is search ruining the Web?

All change at the top for System Concepts
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Usability: ‘Lovely software. But I can’t work it’
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