The Search Box is Your Friend
I was reading TUAW this morning, and they were talking about the Apple.com site and how some people were reporting that the Downloads section was gone. In a nutshell their article was just saying that no, it’s not, it’s just not on the navigation now because they needed room for an iPad tab. My favorite quote from the article* was:
“Fortunately you can easily locate the downloads section simply by typing the word “downloads” into the search box.“
Wow! No really? The search box? What is that? I got an email from a reader a day or two ago that read:
“I’m a intermediate web design student looking for tips on where to get started both in terms of learning and your opinion on the best course of action for trying to get jobs and making money with webdesign as a part time job (maybe full time.)” [sic]
I admit, the navigation on my site leaves a lot to be desired. But there are 3 tabs on every page of the site: “Design Basics”, “Learn HTML CSS XML”, and “Careers”. There are some keywords in those tabs that seem to correlate precisely to what he’s asking for (“learn” and “careers” for those who want to follow along at home). But there is also a search box where he could have typed in “get started” and gotten: Getting Started as a Freelance Web Designer - 12 Things You Need or he could have typed in learning web design and gotten: Web Design - Learn HTML / CSS / XML - Web Development - Web Site … (third link, the first was to my home page, and the second to an HTML tutorial which would have also done the job). Or he could have typed in “get jobs and making money with webdesign” and gotten: Earn Money on the Web - Make Money from Web Pages - Make Money as … plus the third link in that search is Is full-time freelance Web design a viable career alternative? which doesn’t answer his question, but might be interesting for him to read. But instead of clicking on any of the three tabs or doing a search, he instead waded around on my site until he finally found my email link (which is hidden, yes, as part of that less than desirable navigation I mentioned) so that he could email me his question. The question I want to ask him (but won’t) is: “Do you really think I’m going to give you some special hidden gem that isn’t on my site just because you emailed me?” Here’s a clue for the emailers: I’m paid when you read my articles online. I’m not paid to read or reply to emails. So, the best you can hope for in an email reply is for a bunch of links that I’ve found by inputting your question into my search box. Here’s another clue: It’s faster if you do it yourself. Even if you have to try 5 different search phrases or go through 10 pages of results, chances are you’ll find your answer within 5 minutes. If I reply to you within an hour you’re extremely lucky. Most people don’t get a reply for several days, if ever. — * Don’t get me started on the fact that the TUAW “article” was a bit lame to begin with. I mean, they are reporting that the downloads link is no longer in the navigation? Newsflash! Apple employees breathe air! Steve Jobs is reported to have been seen eating a sandwich! Apple.com is hosted on a Web server!!!!