Ask X steals Live Search’s interface
June 5th, 2007
Ask.com’s recent relaunch seems to have built upon a prototype called Ask X.
If you look at the Ask X’s search field it is shockingly similar to Microsoft’s Live Search.
Mirroring the Search (Zoom) glass the other way round doesn’t really count as original design now does it?
June 5th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
What?!
Like using a spyglass for searching is something new that Microsoft invented?!
http://images.google.com/images?as_q=search+icon&hl=en&output=images&svnum=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&imgsz=icon&as_filetype=&imgc=&as_sitesearch=&safe=images
Using anything BUT a spyglass would be the worst thing a search engine could do.
As for why MS put it on the outside of the field, instead of inside, they couldn’t because of IE’s lack of CSS support.
June 7th, 2007 at 4:56 am
It’s not the only one. I’ve seen other search sites do something similiar of that kind too. At least the new ask.com looks nice. I have to give them chops for that. And their search does seem to give good relevant results. Too bad that most people aren’t interested though.
I love the spyglass icon. It has some classy feel to it. Microsoft did it right with the looks at least.