How MSN Live Could Increase Share by 4 points
A simple thing MSN Live search should do immediately to increase their query share:
- Change the look and feel to copy Google. Live.com is the only search engine with a unique color scheme (which I once dubbed "Neptune Morose" for its depressing slate blue & green color scheme). It's also the only one using a different font.
This hasn't worked. It's time to just switch back to what everyone "knows" a search engine looks like - Google. Yahoo and Ask also look exactly like Google. Microsoft just looks odd.
By copying Google exactly (including their use of the Golden Ratio in layout), Microsoft can pick up for free all the benefits of thousands of hours of Google usability testing.
Labels: live, msn