Thursday, December 17, 2009

Browser Size: A Tool To See How Others View Your Website


From: Google Blog
12/16/2009 05:13:00 PM

In a newspaper, the most important story is featured on the front page. If it's a really important piece, then it's placed "above the fold," which means you can find it on the top half of the first page — the bottom half is folded behind and isn't readily seen when you first look at the newspaper.

The same concept applies to browsers as well. There's no clear line for "above the fold" on a browser — there are many different sizes of monitors, browsers are not always full screen and other things like toolbars can take up space. Consider a "Donate" button on a non-profit site. If it's far down the page, you may not see it when you first view the page. You can of course scroll downwards, but many people don't scroll and will miss it entirely. For example, on the download page for Google Earth, the install rate increased by 10% when we moved the "Download" button 100 pixels upward. We can attribute that increase to users who wanted to try out Google Earth, but didn't see the button before.

See the entire article here: GoogleBlog

Here's the browser tool: Browser Size

Penny and Doug
cupenny@tds.net
Penny's Antiques & Wedgwood Pantry





Quote of the Day:
"It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth -- and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts. ... Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not?" --Patrick Henry

1 comment:

Amit Desai said...

i have got my blog evaluated using Google's browsing service and it has helped me identify certain critical areas where i can improve my visitor expereince and also help promoter important areas of my blog in much better way. you can see the complete analysis here http://www.gigathoughts.com/technology/google-labs-introduces-browser-size-tool-to-visually-evaluate-your-site-content.html