Does anyone else think the search button is useless?

[Microsoftjunkie]

one other thing people forgot to mention. If you highlight a word...no matter what app or screen you are in/on, you can press the dedicated search button and it will do a search of the hightlighted word.. extremely handy

 

[xFalk]

Not completely useless, but pretty damn close. No reason why one of the three dedicated buttons should be dedicated to Bing. If Bing sucked much less, than sure. I'd rather it be linked to IE with Google set as my homepage honestly.

At least 50% of my interaction with the search button is hitting it by accident when I am trying to do something else and then going $%#@@#! and every time I hate Bing a little bit more than I already did.

I wish Microsoft understood the way to get people to use Bing is to make it suck less, not trick them into using it by accident by putting a %#@#$@ unavoidable button that launches it on the phone.

Please clarify why you hate Bing so much. Is it just because you grew up on Google and hate change? Have you taken the Bing Challenge? Seriously, Bing used to have issues but has come a long way in the last couple of years. Search engine marketing is my career and when people tell me they hate Bing so much without explanation, I know they really don't know what they are talking about. As far as pure search results are concerned Bing and Google are pretty much the same. When it comes to the layout of the search results page and how the information is presented, Bing almost always wins with search professionals. I don't care if you have a Google preference but if you're going to hate Bing so much you should at least let everyone know why.

 

[odin09]

I do hit it by accident occasionally but I find it very useful. I still prefer Google search and didn't have one Bing victory when I tried the Bing It On challenge but it is still decent for most web searches. The QR scanner and music search is excellent though and I love having it handy.

 

[rgba32bit]

Once you start to use it's really cool. The first couple weeks I had the phone I just thought it was just a web search but once I started using scout I really saw how it acts as many apps not just a web search.

 

[ticktock5]

I think I hit it a few times by accident when I first got the phone. Seemed like another thinly veiled attempt to push Bing... Valiant effort but it's not gonna happen

 

[stmav]

Nothing veiled about it at all, after all it's a windows phone, not an android.

 

[mpelti]

not useless, just incredibly flawed and counter-intuitive. It should be contextual, there's no reason to devote a physical button to launching bing when so many apps have to put a virtual search button in. Also, on the 920 it's way too easy to brush and close the app you were using. I've missed so many photos because it closed my camera app at the wrong time. It's not about what you can do once you're in the bing app, it's the usability of a hair trigger physical button that launches it.

 

[thor_molecules]

It would be nice if the search button searched within the currently opened app. And when on the home screen, it launches Bing. Simple.

IMO, it's pretty wasted just having it tied to the Bing app.

 

[TaliZorah]

I think a lot of people here don't understand all that the search button does. Its not JUST a button to take you to bing. It taggs music, scans codes, and if you highlight a word then press it, it will auto-search the web for whatever is highlights. Also has a built in news and media app if you swipe left and right. I do understand that its sometimes easially accidentally hit but its worth a dedicated button.

 

[mpelti]

I think a lot of people here don't understand all that the search button does. Its not JUST a button to take you to bing. It taggs music, scans codes, and if you highlight a word then press it, it will auto-search the web for whatever is highlights. Also has a built in news and media app if you swipe left and right. I do understand that its sometimes easially accidentally hit but its worth a dedicated button.

Bing tags music and scans codes, it doesn't need a physical button to do that. Highlighting a word and pressing search is a good example of contextual search, which is the exception to the button's very limited "launch bing" role.

 

[TaliZorah]

Bing tags music and scans codes, it doesn't need a physical button to do that. Highlighting a word and pressing search is a good example of contextual search, which is the exception to the button's very limited "launch bing" role.

I disagree. I love how easy it is to get to music search, barcode scans, news, media...etc with the button. Prime example is you are driving, just wake the phone, dont even have to unlock it and tap search, then music tag to find out what song you are listening to. Thats one of thr best features of WP in my opinion. The stuff you want to get to fast, you can - in some cases without even unlocking the phone.

You dont have to wake the phone, unlock the phone, scroll for the music, search, code scanner, news, media or camera app and tap it. Its all accessable right there via the search button while on the lock screen or by holding the camera button for pictures.

If you want apps for all this stuff you can just download those and do it all the old fashioned way. I prefer the search button.

 

[GreenLeaf182]

I never use it, the only time i use it is when my thumb accidentally hits it.

 

[mpelti]

Prime example is you are driving, just wake the phone, dont even have to unlock it and tap search, then music tag to find out what song you are listening to.

If you want apps for all this stuff you can just download those and do it all the old fashioned way. I prefer the search button.

But that, again, is a contextual feature. It bringing up bing search from a home/lock screen is exactly what it should do. But if i'm in the camera, or a game, it shouldn't take me out of that. If i'm in an app, it should search in the context of that app. The problem is that it's nothing more than a permanent, physical link to bing. You cite an example where that's very useful, but the fact that no matter where you are, all it does is bring up bing, is half of the problem. The other half is that there are times you don't want to easily drop out of an app and search bing.

 

[jdhooghe]

Use it all the time.

 

[3ibs]

It's not useless but I'd definitely prefer being able to use the search button to search when an app allows it. Example in the contacts list it should let you start search for a name.

 

[thekonger]

Anyone else feel this way? I think its pretty useless and haven't used it for anything yet. Would've prefered if they had stuck something more useful like a "Menu Settings" button like on the Androids. Might else where since there's 3 little dots in almost every app to represent the settings button anyway.

To be honest, aelesiaa I never used it much, but after reading the music , QR code top, quick high-lighted word search tips, etc. I agree with you, it's awesome. Thanks for the showing how great WP8 is over Android and iPhone!

 

[Winfonejunkie]

The search button is by far one of the most useful aspects of Windows Phone. type in a restaurant name and it will pull up local results, web results, map details, reviews, and all sorts of relevant info. Furthermore, it can do so much more as others have so eloquently stated in previous posts. TS needs to better understand how to use his phone.

 

[Mosov]

I like the search button, even though on the computer I use google for my search.

 

[TaliZorah]

But that, again, is a contextual feature. It bringing up bing search from a home/lock screen is exactly what it should do. But if i'm in the camera, or a game, it shouldn't take me out of that. If i'm in an app, it should search in the context of that app. The problem is that it's nothing more than a permanent, physical link to bing. You cite an example where that's very useful, but the fact that no matter where you are, all it does is bring up bing, is half of the problem. The other half is that there are times you don't want to easily drop out of an app and search bing.

I do agree you should be able to turn it off while in a game or app but its up to the developers of the game or app.

Saying "all it does is bring up Bing" is like saying all an app does is bring up a main menu. Theres A LOT the search button does, the main screen has to be something and bing works. Its not just a bing search button... At all.

 

[mpelti]

I do agree you should be able to turn it off while in a game or app but its up to the developers of the game or app.

Any apps already have this feature?