A Google interface design glitch

Anybody who uses the internet in any shape of form knows that Google are the internet gods. They are the masters of web searching, Google Earth, G-Mail, Adwords, AdSence and many other wonderful inventions that have shaped the Web to be what it is today.

There is one very minuscule details that has bugged me for quite some time about the Google search results interface. Being a search engine optimiser and web designer I tend to look further into the search results that most people and also analyse the interface usability of the sites I visit.

When im searching through pages and pages of results for a specific key phrase I find navigating between the pages quite tedious. I realise I am probably in the bottom 0.00000000001% of people who have noticed this design glitch if not the only person.

The Google glitch … (or my glitch) … is, I can’t easily use the pagination (the numbers at the bottom or top of a web page that let you navigate further into the search). Google only has the pagination at the bottom of the page below the search results, I think it could be more user friendly if they were also included at the top of the page. I use a 24in mac so my screen should have plenty of room to see the 10 results on each page and the page numbers. However, I need to scroll about 50 pixels down the page after I have scanned the 10 results to click the next arrow or next number. When i’m searching 10, 20, 30 pages into the results this gets a little annoying having to scroll just that little bit every page when I know the number are so close,  just there out of my reach.

Anyway, there’s my whinge. I am most likey the only person in the universe who has had the annioance but hey, I thought it worthy of a blog entry. Im sure Google has thought about the search-engine-optimising web-designers who use a 24in screen and their usability experts determined that its not worth some page numbering at the top of the page just for that one guy in Australia is might annoy.