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November 12, 2004
Breaking Out of the Black Box
This morning I was pointed to the Yahoo and MSN search pages by a friend that noticed they'd adopted Google's long standing minimalist entrance appeal. It's not surprising, in fact, quite expected; the "black box" type products have been haunting us since the early days of the industrial revolution. According to Bill Clem's black box philosopy, "These devices are nondescript products defined by their lack of external originality, or awareness of their own brand space in the world."
We could argue that both Yahoo and MSN are both aware of their own brand space, but are they throwing in the towel on competing with what Googlers have recognized for years now? Less is more.
But just to be fair to history, Google wasn't the first group that recognized this when it comes to search interfaces. Do you remember HotBot? While everyone was running around yelling "Yahoo!" on the streets, the rest of us were out having a fling with HotBot and her simple interface. The love affair was short lived though, HotBot gave in to Yahoo's strategy and cluttered up the entrance. What a sad day that was. :(
When Google appeared we thought, finally, someone that recognizes the beauty of simplicity.
But let's get back to the whole "black box" mentality. It's the greatest dis-service to mankind I can think of. One-mindedness is a great thing, but one flavor? Maybe my aversion to no choices has something to do with growing up in a family with 5 kids and walking into Baskin Robbins with more than 31 flavors to choose from and hearing my dad say, "Okay kids, do you want Chocolate or Vanilla?" That's what this past election reminded me of; That's what I think every time I here the masses repeating verbatim the new politically correct terminology; That's what I think when an artist walks up to us and shows us work that looks just like another artist's work in the spotlight. It truly saddens me.
I'll never forget the day when my mom stepped up to the plate and said, "Honey, let the kids choose what they really want." Dad smiled because he knew we were all onto him. He gave in to peer pressure and ice cream became beautiful again!
Seems like there's a lesson to be learned here. It's like the last clip in Eminem's, "Mosh," where the kids fade in, "Can you guys hear us?!"
Can you?
Posted by Brian at November 12, 2004 08:41 AM
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