Funny. Have you ever stopped to notice just how much Google (and a few other services) have changed our notion of relevancy? Let me clarify: I hardly ever go beyond the first page in anything that involves pagination. No, I mean it. Whatever’s behind the front page of a list of things (web page search results, posts on a weblog, pictures on flickr) gets less and less attention from me. Does that happen to you?

I noticed when I started looking at pictures on Flickr earlier today. I was browsing tags and checking some users photos and then I noticed how I never (ever) went beyond the first page on any of them. Up until I made a conscious effort to remember Flickr photos aren’t web search results, I just didn’t go beyond the first set of pictures. Photos are (most of the times) atemporal. Blog posts (like news) on the other hand, are not.

Do we need new ways to navigate sets of data beyond the typical “next page” / “previous page” methods? We just might. Filtering through results if there’s enough metadata is a possible solution, but when there isn’t (or when everything is relevant), there should be new ways to get the content to the users. Otherwise, they’re going to keep ignoring it. You know, if it’s not on the front page, of course.

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One thing that pissed me off about the old (well, 2 years or so is a long time in internet-time) ways of internet development was browser dependency. Now, I’ve always been an untiring web standards advocate, so now that developing new websites using web standards is pretty much the norm and browser developers are realizing that they need to comply, we’re walking towards another era of browser dependency. And it’s making me sick.

Ajax (yes, he’s talking about ajax again). People are using it everywhere, as I predicted some time ago. The problem is, most new developers don’t realize they’re limiting their audience to a small share of web users. Let’s take as an example pretty much all Ajax-based new age Web 2.0 applications. Limited to no safari/opera support, no IE support under 6.0, and sometimes it only works on Firefox (period).

Now, I do use Firefox as my primary browser so I don’t get to complain as often as some people, but there are times when I use Safari because I like the speed; or, heck, I even test some sites on IE sometimes. And it pisses me off that most Ajax-based web-apps cease working: and that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that developers don’t seem to give a damn. As a developer myself, this leaves me flabbergasted. Get a new pair of eyes, people.

I’ve said this before, but I guess I’ll have to say it again. Ajax isn’t the be-all end-all of web applications. From a Usability standpoint, ajax is beneficial because it reduces page refreshes to get to a piece of information but there’s a couple of things that most new developers need to realize:

• Ajax creates several problems that limit usability and decrease user satisfaction. Most of the times, the responsiveness trade-off isn’t worth the use of Ajax in the first place.
• Second, if developers want to use Ajax to reduce page refreshes, they should first consider the possibility of revising their navigation flow: most of the times the problem they’re trying to solve is only a matter of more proper consideration of navigation (and ways to actually see content).

I don’t even know why I’m talking about information architecture and usability, though, because fact of the matter is, most companies are using Ajax for the sake of using Ajax. Because it’s a buzzword and everybody seems to care. You just need to say something is ajax powered in order to get everybody’s attention. The rule should be to use ajax, meaningfully. Where it actually has a purpose, and where it actually helps the user.

Update: Kevin Hale in the comments points out to an article he and his gang over at the great Particletree set up about degradable Ajax. A must-read if you’re deploying Ajax-powered applications and want to make sure you satisfy all your userbase. Read the article here.

One of my worst pet peeves is with the differences between software on different platforms, and how you’re supposed to be the one dealing with it instead of the developer. With software taking a shift from the desktop to the web, this is changing, but not at a pace that we can feel comfortable with.

Get the facts: Windows is the most used platform, but it sure as hell isn’t the best. (Regular) people just don’t know better. OSX is more powerful and Linux is more versatile. Microsoft is coming to a point where all it does is go with the flow, taking features from one or the other competing operating systems and glueing them on. Now I’m not saying they don’t have innovative stuff, but it sure as hell isn’t on the desktop operating system department.

So assuming that, here are some examples that tick me off:

• Skype: Why is Skype so different across platforms? Where’s the functionality that the windows version provides? Why does the thing crash *all the time*? We sure as hell don’t need all the bloat that’s present on the windows version, but a few things are really important.
• Windows Messenger: Why is the mac lagging behind 2 whole version numbers, with all the functionality issues that represents? Now I know we’re talking about a product for a competing platform but since there’s an effort to develop a powerful Office suite, there should be the same effort to build a powerful messaging product. And where the hell is linux support?
• Macromedia Flash: Up until now, even if Macromedia loves the Apple platform, their products on the operating system have been sub-par against their Windows counterparts. This is a shame, considering most of the creative masses are on Macs, anyway. Why is flash constantly making my cpu feel like an oven? This will probably change with the new Studio 8 but from what I’ve seen, not as much as it should. And, again, where the hell *is* linux?
• Hey google? Now one might assume an open and creative company like Google would be into satisfying everybody, but this isn’t the case. Where’s the promised google earth for macs? Where’s the video player for other platforms? Where is google talk? And, this is getting annoying, where the hell is linux?

This is not a plee. This is not a wakeup-call for corporations. This is the realization of a fact: it just isn’t global yet. While platforms besides Microsoft’s Windows get sub-par (or no) respect and attention from some of the most important projects and companies out there, it will never be global. Why I’m even writing this, I have no idea. But I still wonder how some people can ask me “why I love opensource so much”.