Rob Lifford

I’ve read statements on web design & usability blogs about users who always use Google to locate sites that they may visit frequently, or even daily. Usually, the reasons I’ve seen given to explain this behavior are that the user doesn’t know about certain browser features (bookmarks, history, etc.) or that they simply can’t be bothered to use those features.

So, tonight I was surprised to see my darling wife—one of the few people I know who maintains and really uses a large, well-organized library of bookmarks—using Google to get to a cutesy little Flash game that I’ve seen her playing at least a dozen times before.

Why hasn’t she bookmarked it, then? So she won’t go there as often, she explains—she feels like it’s a time-waster and doesn’t want to get sucked in more than a couple times a week. She’s actually forced herself not to memorize the URL, so she has to remember the name and search for it every time. The slight inconvenience actually keeps the number of visits down in her comfort zone.

I’m far too sleepy to draw any major conclusions from this, and I’m not sure there are any, but I felt compelled to write it down, so maybe it’ll come in handy later.