document.f.q.focus(); The Billion Dollar Line of JavaScript

As someone who regularly reviewed the log files of a (major) US ISP’s ‘portal’, I can confirm this as absolutely 100% true. The portal in question has the cursor default to their search box, and the top five search queries were always “hotmail” “yahoo” “google” “ebay” and “amazon”. The order varied month to month, the keywords did not.

There is no doubt in my mind that Google’s “Trends” product filters out these type of searches, as I can almost guarantee that one of the above keywords would be in their top 10.

As a kind of amusing aside, the portal I mentioned above actually used Google as their search engine, and people would use the portals search (google) to get to the google search page.

Wow, pretty good stuff.

Am I missing something here? …if you go to Google it’s because YOU WANT to search!

Mark, we’re talking about when the page is loaded as your homepage. A lot of people have Google set as their homepage, click the IE icon and just start typing. Google get a shedload of hits from people who either meant to type in the address bar or find it easier googling a sitename than typing it!

There’s another reason I do this - if I mis-type in the address bar, I get a spam site. If I mis-type in Google, it’s clever

It never really occured to me they did this for the cash, I assumed it was for convenience (for people who go to Google and then don’t want to have to click in the searchbox), but I suspect the money reason is more accurate

Lets put it another way: if google launched a version of Firefox replacing the address box with a google search box they could take over and replace the DNS.

– MV

They already do this. Try typing Amazon into your FF address bar if you have the Google Toolbar installed and see where you end up.

Actually, having something convenient can at the same time mean that it is good.
Dont you hate if something becomes too complicated?

I tell you i hate if google makes something “new” to the google interface, because it means _I_ have to adjust to the way how google *thinks* I should use their “service”… i hate that.

Unfortunately there isnt a real competition. Yahoo etc.. just plain SUCK. I wonder why they overload so much fancy crap, they should keep things simple.

Good article. Very digg/reddit-bait in terms of the wording of the title, but you’ve got good stuff here.

@Patrick: Actually, that’s a Firefox feature, without the Google Toolbar installed. They already have a business arrangement with Google. A new Firefox installation has a Mozilla-branded Google “start-page”.

“It never really occured to me they did this for the cash, I assumed it was for convenience (for people who go to Google and then don\’t want to have to click in the searchbox), but I suspect the money reason is more accurate
“

Sort of - they were doing this prior to the advent of adsense, to the best of my recollection. It just turned out that that little bit of convenience made them tonnes of money in the end.

You don’t even need the Google toolbar. If Firefox can’t resolve a domain name, it does a Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” search on what you typed.

You know, you could make the cursor appear on your cocks if only you didn’t use such shitty web browsers… *cough*

Media companies are complaining about scripting/software in the a-fore-shadowed *non-shitty* web browser, that disables/hides ads, disables malware and even changes the way html is displayed.

The above factor must be costing the industry MILLLLLLIONS of dollars by allowing users to basically Surf Anonymously.

Your Blog is dumb.

I know this to be true as I’ve noticed it in many other places on the web. It actually becomes convenient for people to do this if it’s on their start page, and can be a huge moneymaker.

And thanks that they do. For an average user typing in the search box and getting Google is more safe than typing in incorrect spellings in the url. Google saves the world from phishing and makes a billion while they are at it.

@Danny: You’re referring to the wrong person. You probably wanted to point that at “Webmaster”

That’s so true.

The volume of searches I receive for “encosia.com”, even at my relatively tiny site, is just sad.

If people find searching google easier than an address bar, thats a service goole is providing them. They have to do the query and provide the link. Surely people may not understand the difference, but thats because google is an improvement on an arguably out of date method of internet browsing. If they make it so much easier that people dont even realize what they’re doing, I’d say thats a pretty good service.

So your point is that when people surf to http://www.google.com, that people will be tricked into using google to search? Why did anyone go to http://www.google.com in the first place if not to search it?? You are suggesting that if I type an url into the address line, the cursor should stay there after the page loads, because of course, I am going to want to go to another address straight away. Try typing CTRL+T in firefox, the cursor goes straight to the address bar, I guess google is being ripped of here, according to your logic??

I often look at usual users when they use Internet and I’ve noticed the same thing. That’s how simple things can make money.

The whole basis for this blog post is ridiculous. Google had the document.f.q.focus() code in their home page back in 1998, long before they ever had ads. The fact that some people type a URL into the text box is merely an indication of their lack of Internet savviness. The extra cash Google has scored from this is purely incidental. It simply stems from giving users better usability - it’s one less mouse click to perform a search.

I do this sometimes for 1) speed 2) typo robustness and last but not least, 3) I like to transfer money from companies I dislike but must do business with to a company that I like

Wow….Reaching a little are you? If somebody goes to google.com, they are most likely intending to search, therefore it makes perfect sense to focus on the search field. It is done to save the user a click, it just so happens it might make them a little money too.

I don’t see why that is sooo smart.. As we all know Microsoft still controls the browser market, so I will wait to see the day MS will bring this feature into IE (if not already there - dunno since I’m not really an IE user). It is easy to redirect the search query to MSN. But if they do that by default, people will say “oh no, here they come again using their monopoly and bla bla bla”. But if Google does it, then it is smart!!? No doubt Google is providing a good service but if you put this JS line only in a financial level, they I’d say they are also taking advantage of their monopolistic position.

that’s incredible! that’s a lot

Who cares Im not making any money from this, and their not taking money from me. If I had a business I would pay to have it in the top spot.

In online business it’s a usual thing that a small feature or small improvement makes great amount of money for such companies like Google.

WOW! this article is really eye-opening !

Very insighful article.
No wonder one sees yahoo/aol/microsoft as the significantly searched keywords in Google.

G did replaced the address bar, but it’s interesting to know the monetary idea behind it!

-Ashish