Tomorrow, May 22nd, Pacman will be 30 years old. And this time Google is paying homage to Pacman with a doodle with a twist! Playable doodle! (and NOT in flash +1)

Over 200 levels to play with! (It’s being reported that the game will stay for 48 hours, so hurry up!)

What is really interesting about it is that it changes according to your query (duh!) making the whole “experience” smoother and better depending on what you are searching for.

In a more simple way:

1st query: Lebanon. You get “everything” along with the ability to filter, images, videos, news, blogs and maps. which makes sense, you are searching for a country after all.

2nd query: On the other hand, when you search for something “too generic” you only get “everything”

3rd query: Ipad. Everything, plus news, images, videos, blogs and most importantly “shopping”.  Smart search folks, excellent user experience, it beats me how competition will try to outsmart Google. Clean, crisp, usable and it’s giving us what we are asking/searching for. It can’t get any better than this.

Google makes me wanna search! and the “something different” is a nice touch! Graphics look more crisp and clean! Yummy page!

Enjoy.

They all have the exact same menu. Nothing is different except a few languages (which is a nice touch, Arabic/English/French/Armenian for Lebanon, Urdu Farsi Arabic Hindi English for UAE…) AND It doesn’t show that I am already signed in to my Google account! If I head to Google.com (non localized page) it shows that I am signed in, when I head to the Lebanese localized page, it shows that I am signed in. BUT when I head to any other localized page it doesn’t show that I am signed in. Porque?

check the screengrabs to see what I mean.

Two questions:

• Do all the users have the same behavior in the middle east? hence why the same features display on all of them?
• Why doesn’t it show that I am signed in whenever I am using a different localized page? knowing that I am already signed in at Google.com or Google.com.lb

I m just rambling…

I was like a kid enjoying an underskirt view for the first time! but what struck me was that there are no links/mentions (still) to the maps on Google’s Lebanon page! nothing! zip! nada!

I thought it would be in the “more” but nothing at all.

maybe in the “even more”

and voila! buried deep inside on the “search menu”.

I know it’s not the end of the world, but, usability/ux wise, you want to burry the maps deep down, have it as an icon along the rests, people are expecting to see it with the icons (even more=icons + description, not up in the search bar)

I don’t know what Google’s policy is, but having something like Google Maps with directions/routings for Lebanon at street level view and fairly up to date imagery, I’d place the link on the main page.

Unfortunately I don’t have the data to what the users are doing on the main page of Google Lebanon but the line up is as follows: Web Images Translate Scholar Calendar Documents Gmail

Are people using Calendar more than Maps? are people actually using Scholar (I’d be more than happy if it turns out that the Lebanese are doing so!) so the good folks at Google, share some information with us the very few and rare specie that are interested in usability and user experience in the middle east, and please GIVE US LOCAL BUSINESS LISTINGS FOR LEBANON ASAP TOO (I am willing to fill the data for free)

Anyways, I ran a few tests on several search engines, Araby, Ayna, Bing, Google, Yahoo/Maktoob. I came to a small conclusion;

Araby: it should be an all exclusive entertainment search engine if it wants to survive. Other than that it has no chance. A full on search engine was not made for Araby. And it’s time to start using a proper engine with a proper algorithm. Enlarge your video/image/audio index or Google will swallow the rest of what’s left of it. Some usability issues.

Ayna: it should be a an all exclusive local search engine if it wants to survive.Other than that it has no chance. A full on search engine was not made for it. And it needs to start using a proper engine with a proper algorithm. Better maps are needed ASAP or else Google will swallow the rest of what’s left of it. Major usability issues.

Bing: retire please (or start building proper options for the search engine, results wise it is O K)

Google: Usability, results, options, diversity, overall, still the king with no real threat at all (yet?). Downside, they have to plug the map/local search, saw a few shy attempts, they have to unleash all the data they are getting for FREE from US the USERS!

Yahoo/Maktoob: Considering it’s relatively new in the Arabic market, it is O K, results are O K, but lacks basic functionality just like Bing. Shape up fast or die. (Even though it’s the default search engine on Maktoob, it won’t help much, we saw the same failed attempt by Araby…)

Now the comparison chart, it’s not that extensive, but it gives you a pretty good idea of the major differences between the search engines. All answers marked NO didn’t work at the time of the writing of this post (Feb 8th, 2010) if it is working please take a screen-shot and get in contact so I can update.

The search term means “The Elements of Social Architecture” I wanted to try something “different” they all got the good results except Ayna, the first two results were totally irrelevant.

. Araby Ayna Bing Google Yahoo/Maktoob . Search Term: عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية 3,239 Results 138 Results 4,050 Results 223,000 Results 26,700 Results . Results (1st) A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية عمارة – ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية . Speed in seconds N/A 0.9154 N/A 0.9 0.26 . Cached No No Yes Yes No . Boolean searching Yes No Yes Yes Yes . Related Search Yes No No Yes No . Different Views No No No Yes (Related searches Wonder wheel Timeline) No . Search in results No No No Yes No . Limit by date No (advanced is down) Yes (limited though) No Yes (extensive) Yes (limited though) . Collections to search Web Audio Dictionary Songs Islam Forums Celebrities Web Images Video News Dictionary Blog Local Religion Web Web Images Videos News Blogs Updates Books Forums Social Web . Translate pages/sites No No No Yes No . Search in Results No No No Yes No . Advanced Results Sorting/Clustering No No No Yes No

Anyways I decided to go “smart” a bit and search for:

• “Weather Cairo/ احوال الطقس في القاهرة”. All engines failed (note that in English it works perfectly on Google and Bing)
• “Cafe in Dubai/مقهى في دبي “. All engines failed (again in English it shows Google maps with Local Business Results, I was expecting Ayna to show some results since they have maps in Arabic and boast about it)

The only “unusable” features that Araby and Ayna have is the Arabic keyboard (note the “unusable”) Google added transliteration service in their lab but it’s not as good as Yamli’s (it ROCKS!) and not available on the search engine directly…yet.

Anyways here are few screen-shots