Mastodawn

How does anyone *not* get excited about the Fediverse when they discover they can embed a search engine - with pre-populated search terms -- into a status update?

Did Twitter ever let you do that?

No, Twitter didn't even let you edit a post!

Emelia 👸🏻May 8, 2023

@atomicpoet unfortunately it doesn't work bug free:

@thisismissem You do retrieve results, however.

And it's awesome that this can even happen.

@atomicpoet explain please. Most search engines use a GET request, embedding the search terms into the URI, so technically, I can put a predefined search anywhere I can put a URI. Am I missing something?

@pjakobs Seeing is believing: https://calckey.social/notes/9ehzd13dzh

Chris Trottier (@atomicpoet)

Look ma! I’m embedding a search box info #Calckey! Calckey [search] How do you like them apples?

Calckey Social

@atomicpoet ok, I guess, this might be a client thing, but I don't see anything special here (in tusky)

@atomicpoet ah, just saw your opening post on this - so I guess the Web frontend renders the search box right into the post?
Interesting idea.
Not sure what I would use it for, though. Also it seems it's a client side implementation

@atomicpoet ah, I'm slowly getting to understand.

@pjakobs @atomicpoet
I feel like it's a problem if one has to work that hard to understand a feature.

@FeralRobots
it has to be said that I came at this with a misconception that it was about mastodon, so that made it harder.
But: personally, I still fail to see a use case. That may by my problem, though.
@atomicpoet

@pjakobs @atomicpoet
Here's how I'd refine the use-case: Show the user a search, where you want them to modify it in some way to match their particular need.

Feels like a pretty narrow use-case, though. If one just wants to search for that term, provide GET query link (ideally, in the form of descriptive linked text, since the text would function as a label).

E.g. <a href="https://search.annoyingorange.xyz/search?q=Calckey">Search AnnoyingOrange.xyz for 'Calckey'</a>

Murm's SearXNG

SearXNG — a privacy-respecting, open metasearch engine

@FeralRobots @atomicpoet

honestly, the only way that I could see this used is in a passive-aggressive "let me google that for you" way - and for that we've had lmgtfy.com for decades.

Archnemysis May 8, 2023

@pjakobs @FeralRobots @atomicpoet that was the first use case that came to mind for me. But, this feels like something that once it is put into users hands they will develop new ways of interacting with it.

Archnemysis May 8, 2023

@pjakobs @FeralRobots @atomicpoet For example, I once saw someone use the edit feature on Mastodon as basically a live update blog with notifications. Every time they edited the original post on a breaking news event, everyone who interacted with the post got a notification. Further, someone could just click the view, edit link and see, the full history of how the event unfolded. I thought it was a pretty cool way of informing people about a breaking news event.

@Archnemysis @pjakobs @atomicpoet
'The street finds its own uses' is a reliable mantra, but putting something out there that one knows is bad & saying 'users will figure out how to make it good' doesn't feel like a good strategy to me. & meanwhile all the people for whom it's broken will still not be able to use it, no matter what conventions develop around its use.

@Archnemysis @pjakobs @atomicpoet
Using your example: Yes, that's clever. But how does anyone know to do that?

What about the edit feature tells them 'look at me to see earlier posts about this'?

What about the UI for the post tells them 'you can look at the history of this post'? Especially given Gargron's infamous preference for really poor low-vision usability & aesthetic resistance to basic accessibility/usability features like underlining links?

Archnemysis May 8, 2023

@FeralRobots Yeah, depending on the client used the edit history can be easy to overlook. I got notifications for each of your edits and I have developed a habit of looking at the history.

Certainly users developing norms is not a good substitute for an accessible UI and understandable documentation.

@Archnemysis yeh, sorry if that was chatty - I should have thought about the fact it would notify you. I did it so we could all have a reference to how that works in practice.

@FeralRobots @Archnemysis I do not want to talk negatively about this feature, just because I have no way to experience it myself and cannot think of a good way to use it. @atomicpoet clearly seems to like it and so I guess there are legitimate and positive ways of using it.

@pjakobs @Archnemysis @atomicpoet
I hear you, but I can tell you as someone who has to do accessibility evaluations on my own product & the product of others, it's not a good pattern for #a11y.

@FeralRobots
that I agree with. @Archnemysis @atomicpoet

@pjakobs This is not a web frontend for Mastodon. #Calckey is something quite different.

There's lots of other things you can do with Calckey, such as animations inside a status update.

@atomicpoet got it.

testing May 8, 2023

@atomicpoet
baaaaah the syntax for inserting the search bar has changed!

@atomicpoet It's neat but I don't like it.
1. If 'Calckey' is meant to be the label, that's a pattern with accessibility & usability problems.
2. Don't really understand the pattern (see prev) - looks like 'Calckey' is meant to be the label but it ends up the search term [placeholder]. Put another way, doesn't behave like other shortcode patterns
3. Expected behavior (which to me is 'search this site') doesn't match with actual behavior (which seems to be 'search default engine for this site').

@atomicpoet Ultimately I fall down in the 'we can but should we' camp on this. & as implemented, I'd say it shouldn't be used. Bad #a11y, bad #UX. URL with a GET string is better, because it tells the user what search engine they'll be using & can be labeled using the link text.