I love everything about this so much. Just shows what can be done when a few creative people take control of a flagging public service, positively benefiting the whole community for minimal outlay.

My Dad works for the Kent Library service, I’ve sent this to him in the hope that someone takes this idea and does something amazing in the UK.

http://www.skokielibrary.info/

“Skokie Public Library supports lifelong learning, discovery and enrichment through a broad spectrum of materials, technologies and experiences. Serving a diverse population, the Library facilitates access to information, the exchange of ideas and the building of community.”

That bar. Because Google chose to scrap a dedicated search box and address bar and use a single bar that spans the width of the browser, any text entry bar a full URL results in a Google search for the term entered.

For example, typing ‘Twitter’ into the address bar of Firefox takes you directly to the Twitter site. It’s a neat shortcut, and is fairly intelligent in terms of deciphering spelling mistakes or if you’re searching in a rush. Chances are if you’re typing ‘Twitter’, you want to go directly to the twitter site and not to a search. If you want to search, you use the alternative box on the far right.

By using one box for two functions, Chrome has to default to a search result as they don’t know your intentions when entering the term.

It’s a small niggle, and realistically doesn’t affect my work or browsing that much, but it does add an extra click or two into a function that I’ve become pretty used to.

Release your application on all platforms your target market might use at the same time. Easy, isn’t it.

http://www.vichaven.com/html/current.html