Gamers get their own Search Engine (well, kind of)

When Clickz announced that the Ziff Davis Game Group was going to unleash their search engine "Gazerk" designed for video game oriented content, I was in a word, thrilled. I sent links of the article to my friends (I do a lot of gaming in my off time), and I speculated about how gamers would flock to this search engine because it would have targeted articles, advertisements, videos, blogs, game updates and cheats in a central area.

From Clickz’s article:

"We felt there was an opportunity to create a vertical search engine for the gaming community because of the way the data is structured and content is organized for gamers," said Ira Becker, SVP and GM of the 1UP Network within the Ziff Davis Gaming Group. "Our search engine allows them to look at a game from many different perspectives."

With E3 in full swing, and video game companies announcing great news for upcoming games and technology it’s an appropriate time for Ziff Davis to release this new gaming search engine.

What a disappointment.

I plugged the URL into Firefox and felt my adrenaline level rise when I saw the page resolve. Imagine my horror when I find that the page design is some retro-throwback space invaders design.

Everything about this logo screams “I love the 80’s”. Not exactly the image you want to portray when you want to provide the latest, hottest gaming information on the web.

Then, I plugged in a search term for Turbine’s upcoming MMO, Lord of The Rings Online” (ok… in my spare time, I also beta test MMORPG’s and I’m pretty excited about this game). Check this SERP out for a keyword search on the game.

MY EYES, THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING!

The only thing I see past this point is the Hawt Pink on black lettering. Never mind the descriptions; I can barely stand the design of the SERP. While the results seem to be somewhat relevant and useful based on my several searches (while searching the term “elder scrolls oblivion” it doesn’t result in the game’s homepage to come up on the first page, but I’m sure that there are still some relevancy bugs to be worked out), I still could not see past the offensive design.

I can’t imagine who they think their target audience is. Lets face it, while the female population in gaming (both casually and professionally - Gotta love the Frag Dolls) has been significantly increasing, most gamers are still male. As a male, gaming, professional, with disposable income, who lived through the 80’s, this does not capture me.

Functionality

Now that I’ve calmed down a bit, I tried some general game searches. Let’s go to my prior search.

What’s unique about this result is that you can filter the keyword results by Games, Screenshots, Forums, Reviews, Blogs and Cheats. This is actually quite useful to the user and something that is well designed. However, I would like to see “videos (Trailers), news and other topic filters as well.

Another aspect I would like to see is a personalized homepage, similar to Google’s. This way you can track news, release dates, new screenshots or videos from games that the user selects. There have been some games like Bethsoft’s Oblivion, where I went to their homepage every day to check for new updates on the game. If Gazerk would take that approach and make this engine an extension of the gamers’ experience, that would be huge. Another aspect that Gazerk should look into is social search and relevance tagging. Like PreFound.com, which uses a collaborative community oriented search principle, Gazerk could leverage the gaming community, which has no shortage of people with opinions, to create a user base that would assist Gazerk in creating relevance.

Hawt Pink?

I seem to be obsessing over the design, and while I think the core of their search engine and the organization is unique, clever and useful, I just expected a lot more in terms of design. I expected a lot more originality. I expected them to show me that they are on the cutting edge of gaming technology, news and events. Instead I get retro design and a link color that most people stopped using after people started having seizures.

The homepage itself is spartan and uninteresting. The site design is not much more than a search box and links. When the search industry is striving to become more relevant and more a part of a person’s life, it seems odd that Gazerk would essentially ignore how seriously gamers take this information and give them something that is less relevant than any of the other search engines and package it in a design that is flat and annoying.

Despite the usefulness of the results, if they don’t change their design, I know that I will still use Google for my gaming searches.

I’ve always enjoyed what Ziff Davis has done for gamers and the industry, but this time, I am not impressed.