I think the wonder wheel is a great idea, but it seems out of place in the google search page. That's probably more of a "well, how the heck do we tack THIS thing onto our traditional search" problem.
But the upside is that it serves as an evolving mind map of a search and lets you easily retrace your steps to get back to search contexts you may have missed (and to let you choose a more narrow context for which you might not have anticipated the best wording). To me Wonder-wheel is to Breadcrums as Subway Map is to spooling a string behind you in order to retrace your steps if you get lost. It is not very useful for basic searches, but is excels for searches about topics which I know little about. It basically provides me with suggestive context for my searching, and is more useful than a linear suggestive-typing feature in a search box. As for the aesthetic, well, that's a different matter. It looks awkward jammed in there to the right of the results filter menu. -Damon ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
