Geeking with Greg on the effect of page response times at Google and Amazon:
After a bit of looking, Marissa explained that they found an uncontrolled variable. The page with 10 results took .4 seconds to generate. The page with 30 results took .9 seconds.
Half a second delay caused a 20% drop in traffic. Half a second delay killed user satisfaction.
The new edition of Google: The Missing Manual is out. My girlfriend, housemate, and, until a recent promotion, executive editor of the Missing Manual series is the primary author. But it’d still be a great book if that wasn’t the case.
Turns out that Google is about much more than search, although the search sections are pretty useful. I picked the book up mostly for the new section on Google Analytics, which we use and love at Odeo. I’ve read the AdSense and AdWords sections as well. Also great. The core of the book is on search. However, I pick up most of my search tips by watching Sarah. So all I can say definitively, she knew what she was talking about when she wrote the search sections.
