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Dear RIM,
Let's talk about search. In my opinion, the quality of search is one of the most essential, and underrated, functions in technologies that handle large amounts of information. What's the first praise of Gmail I sing when setting up accounts for my friends? The archive function and the powerful search capability it enhances. With Apple, UI is an obvious benefit, but what struck me as one of the most important things to communicate to Marc Lipoff when I gave him a tutorial last week on his new Mac? Windows search functions are embarrassing compared to Mac's very fast, very accessible, and very thorough Spotlight.
BlackBerry actually does pretty well with this. The search function in Messages is pretty accessible (hit the S key), and it always brings up the results I need (unlike Windows search). I wouldn't even complain too much about superfluous options in the search screen. I guess the omission of a "more options" button could be a deliberate concession to their largest target market--I'm sure my dad would much sooner look through hundreds of emails before selecting "more options" or "advanced search".
I have two issues to discuss today, and must first discuss the less important issue in order to fully understand the more troubling one. The first problem is that its just so difficult to actually engage the "search" option, which is likely the main function of the Seach program. If you hit "enter", which seems logical, it takes you to the next line, so instead to have to press the menu or trackball, and select "search" manually. If you try to beat the system by memorizing that in just this program you must press the trackball twice, hope that you don't have anything in your clipboard because "paste" will appear as the default selection and then you'll have to do the whole thing over again. RIM, we all know that BlackBerry is in a class of its own, but please don't blatantly ignore the standard engagement function for all other major searches in the world, and just make "enter" the search key.
Ok so that is basic but the more troubling problem with BlackBerry Search is this: the Subject and Message search fields have Spell Check!!!!! I really wonder, was there any logic behind this design decision, or is there somebody at BlackBerry that is under the impression that more is always more? Because in this case, more is definitely less, especially if we actually try to consider how people use the search function.
Now, let's say Judith wants to know what room the McKinsey info session is in. And somebody just pushed the button to call Etcheverrry Hall's extremely slow elevator. There are probably a lot of words that Judith remembers from the email she read from McKinsey last week. "Come and find out more"... "discuss their experiences"..."consulting firm advising leading companies"... so which word/s will her brilliantly analytical pure-strategy-consulting-
The point is simple: it makes the most sense to search for a word that is unique and differentiates the target from everything else. Most of the time, these are not dictionary words, and are often a name or something else irregularly spelt, like Sukkot, or Broomball. Even if you're doing a search with enough time to search for the search key, the fastest thing to do is enter a space after the non-word. Which is ridiculous, to be blunt.
So please, allow "enter" to engage a search, and remove the Spell Check function from all search fields.
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