Well, I'd say around 8-9ish out of ten. Google is a nice site: it's simplistic and gets to the point in search. I've seen too many search sites that are littered with junk everywhere. Not only does that take a long time to load (and with search, the shorter time it takes for a search engine to load, the more time you have to actually get to the juicy parts of the search), it also hurts your eyes and distracts you from what you want.

I've got to say though, that when I originally started using Google in third grade, I was actually attracted to use it entirely because of its design. I liked the O's that it used right above each search page and thought that was a very unique idea. Although I have since decided that Google's design is evidently not the best in the world, it's the best for what it does.

Of course, there are issues--lots and lots of people have complained about adsense. And of course, Google's recent buying trend doesn't make it much different than other corporate giants--if you can't beat your competitors, just buy 'em out. Bad mentality there. We need more competition to actually improve. Look at what happened to Microsoft without competition.

Frankly, I also think Google needs a bit more competition. As long as it has a main rival, it will be forced to improve its search engine and not just stay stagnant like it seems to have been doing recently. I also think it'd be nice just to have more choices: currently my choices are Google, MSN, Yahoo and Askjeeves. Frankly, the last three aren't very useful at all, so they really leave me with no choice but Google. With good competition, Google can be driven further.

On a scale of 1-10, I would rate Google 9/10.

Why?
* We can't "flick" through cached page history. (Okay, that sounds too advanced.)
* Google is easy to use, yes, but should be optimised to something like the front page of http://alamy.com.
* The colour scheme looks a tad boring.
* Can't customised it. (Again, this a tad too advanced also.)

That's about it...because it's just about perfect.

I would say 8-9/10, if talking about google, the search engine and not its over services, I really like the simplicity and that it is working on most/all browsers the same, except for some browsers without css.. I would really be unhappy if they would make their search "cooler" by getting a new design or something and even though I see the same colour scheme for a lot of years, I didn't really get bored, you can create and customizable google search for yourself and change to the colours you want, but I think that there is no better scheme than the white, black, blue

Yes, I love Google!! I would give it a 9/10.

Google is the "Well Done" version of web services. In other words: is like the Coca-Cola, and the other are ONLY "Pepsi".

My Internet experience has changed drastically since I use Google: probably the best ever search engine, Gmail(beta): If that is a beta, Imagine what will be the stable version!!!. You can chat via Jabber and to have a web messenger(my dream 4 years later). There is also the calendar with reminders, and many other not well know tools to help not only your PIM(Personal Information Management), there are also tools for communities, developers. Very nice personal settings and... and... and... (as said in spanish) "googlea" to know more.

Why not a 10/10?, because Google is in that way

Anyway, that would be nice to read post about the "bad" of Google.

This post has been edited by develCuy: Apr 28 2007, 07:07 PM

Mmmmm...while the design on that page may or may not be more appealing than Google's (it depends on opinion, and frankly, I think it fits too much to the Web 2.0 cliche). Here, however, is some solid reasons why Google might not want to migrate the Web 2.0 way. Let's take a look at the speed report of the site alamy.com:



Source: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/service...tp://alamy.com/

Then look at the speed report for Google.com:



Google.com is evidently a lot faster than alamy.com. So if they want to cater to the most users, it's better to use their current design as it is obviously faster. Users probably won't be happy if they have to wait 10 seconds just for the page to load without a response of some sort from the page.

10/10.

Incredibly simple to use with no need of random links and images you don't care about. Just the pure and simple search engine without bells and whistles. Plus, now that iGoogle is out, you can customize is to your liking, including themes that are time sensitive (which refresh on their own btw).

I'm going with 10/10, sure there is plenty of things they could do to make it better for *me*, but as it is, it's not really a problem or a nuisance in any manner.

I can usually find exactly what I want, in a reasonably sufficient amount of time, gmail/google mail works well enough (although a tad slowish), the interfaces are simple and fairly clean and easy enough to use.

Heck even the calculator is good lol.

Ah, dear gods! I have forgotten the calculator! Google's calculator is the best that I've ever found. I especially enjoy its unit conversion feature (I'm too lazy to remember that a micrometer is 1 x 10^-6 m and stuff like that); it's quite useful when I'm working on homework. The calculator picks up on words exactly the way I want it too...absolutely great.

As for other improvements...well, for Google calendar, they ought to offer to do lists that you can check off as you finish each item. Currently I'm using Google Notebook as a to-do-list, which works well, but it doesn't have automatic "mark as finished" buttons, which are very useful.

I also think Google Reader should have search. I mean, come on, Google is a search giant; how can it possibly lack its main feature on such a great product?

I would say 10/10, it is clean and simplistic.

THe beauty of Google is that it is not cluttered. It is also fast loading because of this.

I am absolutely there on you with that one again lol. Still can't get over the fact that it accepts so much English into in-place of pure mathematical designated symbols, it quite frankly kicks butt.

Unit conversion is definitely one of the most handiest features, being able to go back and forth without a hitch, some plain English goes a long way with Google .

What will they do next, eh lol.