Gaming Search Engine Gazerk Gets a New Look and Feel
When Ziff Davis and the 1UP network rolled out their vertical search engine Gazerk, as a gamer and an industry watcher, I wrote a review about it. That review was pretty scathing and while I firmly believe in the usefulness of vertical based search, I felt that Gazerk’s design issues were a barrier to their target audience. To give a little bit of history, Gazerk’s interface was essentially pink text on a black background. I wrote, back in May, that the SERP (search engine results page) was almost an assault on the user. Google, MSN and Yahoo have all set the standard high in terms of design and layout. I wrote that it appeared that Gazerk essentially ignored their target audience and ignored best practices in search design.

With their new design, they have obviously corrected almost all of those issues and presented a new design that is sleek and very cool.

There are two principles that Gazerk failed to implement when they first launched.

1: Provide relevant information in a format designed for scanning. Initially Gazerk’s interface was too much of a visual assault for users to not notice. That, I believe, was the key to Gazerk’s problem. Users noticed the design more than they noticed the results. In search engines, it’s the results that really matter and the design should enhance and guide the users, not stand out. It’s like plumbing, you only really notice it when something goes wrong. In the new design, Gazerk is user friendly and displays information and results in a template that is familiar and intutivie. The color design is accessible and doesn't get in the way of the actual results. The results themselves are organized, easy to read and provide enough information for the user to be confident that what they are about to click on is what they want to see.

2: Know your target audience and give them what the need and what they expect. Every site should focus on the informational needs of the users. Gamers are task and goal oriented. They need to be informed and attracted to the product or service in order to continue to use the site and ultimately convert. While Gazerk provided their users with information, they presented it in a way that didn't suit their users' needs or expectations.

User purposes can be categorized by the following:
· Users may come to a website because of a personal interest
· Users may be searching for specific information that helps them learn, make decisions, or take action
· Users may be looking to buy a product or service
· Users may need to communicate, share information, or perform tasks.

Gamers are notorious for wanting the latest information about upcoming games, recently released games, cheats, mods, downloads, videos and other game related media. The gaming industry feeds that desire by releasing snippets of information, new videos, new developer diaries, contests, interviews and other marketing media to feed that interest. Gazerk has a hungry audience that is ready to search for information The gaming industry lobbed a soft-ball to Gazerk by creating a user base that is starved for information… all Gazerk had to do is provide that information and hit it out of the park. After Gazerk's redesign, it paves the way for them to start enhancing their search capabilities, adding different and unique functionalities and serving their community.

Gamers Get Gazerk: Redux

Jason Freidenfelds, the PR manager for the 1UP Network, which includes EGM, OPM, CGW, FileFront.com, GameTab.com, and 1UP.com shot me an email last week letting me know that Gazerk just completed a redesign (along with a few under-the-hood upgrades as well).

Gazerk’s Home Page

I went to the newly upgraded Gazerk and I must say that I was impressed. Gazerk’s new look is sleek and clean. The search function is central and very well placed. The Gazerk logo hovers, with its little space invader reminding me of all those hours I wasted in grade school. The last time I wrote about Gazerk, I made a pretty snarky comment about its retro design. However, the logo coupled with the new look is actually quite reminiscent and cool. It’s an interesting statement to notice that my mood was instantly affected by Gazerk’s old design and how that mood affected my analysis of every other aspect. As before, it is instantly obvious to the user what they need to do to go forward. Once I enter the search term, I am no longer concentrating on the design, in fact, I’m not even noticing it. The design enhances the homepage without overpowering it. Very Nice!

I do however, have a critique. On the homepage, below the search bar, Gazerk makes the following statement: ”Welcome to GAZERK: the Web's only search engine dedicated to finding videogame content!” While Gazerk is currently the only exclusively gaming oriented search engine in the US, the Wazap! Network captures millions of users in Germany and Japan. Wazap! is currently expanding into other markets as well such as China and the US. When Wazap! enters the US market, I believe that the competition is going to heat up between Gazerk and Wazap! to capture the interest of the US gaming community. When that happens, the real winners will be the gaming community.

The Search Results… Design and Relevance

The last time I talked about Gazerk’s design and relevance I chose a game that is going to be coming out in the not too distant future: The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar from Turbine Inc. What I did was take the exact same keyword search on Google, MSN and Yahoo compared to the results in Gazerk. I took the top 15 in Google and the top 10 in MSN and Yahoo to compare the results of the search in Gazerk. What I found was that the top 6 results for Gazerk fall in fairly well in terms of relevance with the results from the other search engines. Gazerk’s outliers, the last 4 results, (it’s really a toss up to include Turbine’s forums, because they are a part of the official Lord of the Rings Online network, however, because they still don’t appear in the other results, I will include them), don’t appear in any of the other searches. Naturally, you want some variation between search engines, you don’t want to discount the results, the true test is if those results are relevant and not “spammy” or obviously off the mark. Gazerk’s search result outliers add to the variety of results rather than detract from them.

The fact that Gazerk gets different results is not an issue in and of itself. However, the only thing that I don’t like is the fact that Turbine’s official LotRO page is the first result on Google, MSN, and Yahoo and #4 on Gazerk and like the last time I did this experiment, using The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion as a keyword search, neither Bethsoft or The Elder Scrolls homepage came up on the results. Naturally, that kind of refinement takes time and I look forward to keeping track of how Gazerk changes its relevance.

My suspicion about those results lead me to hypothesize that Gazerk's linking algorithm is still a bit immature. With Google, MSN and Yahoo, they are able to determine very high quality links coming to the site. However, with Gazerk, it may recognize those links as incoming and relevant, the algorithm may just not be robust enough to determine the value of those links. Secondly, because of the specific nature of Gazerk, it may be possible that the crawler itself is not crawling sites that link to gaming related content. With time, as Gazerk indexes more and more pages these issues may possibly self correct over time.

In terms of design, Gazerk has done a good job with the results page. The primary aspect that I really like is the top positioned “Latest News” section. Very nice Gazerk, this is a good solution to keep up with the pace of information. The rest of the page conforms to a quick scanning “F” shaped pattern. The filters show up and it’s intuitive to the user what they do, and they are in a great position for the user to click on them rather than refine their keyword search. The only critique I have about the results page is the light grey URL below the description, but for all things considered, it’s really a minor suggestion and much more “personal preference”. When I forwarded the newly designed Gazerk to a friend and co-gamer, he said “muuuuch nicer, I like the design…but it’s still got pink”. While I still don’t like the pink, I think that it separates the results from the filters nicely, I just wouldn’t have chosen that color.

Why Gazerk and not Google?

In theory, search engines are all about the results. However, as we see Google add everything from maps, satellite pictures and even spreadsheets to their site, it’s obvious that the goal of search engines is to become almost a total usefulness portal. It’s no longer the focus of Google, MSN or Yahoo to have people come to their site just so they can leave. Google’s personalized page is my homepage, on it I get information about everything from Gmail to Wired News to Scientific American to the MMOG news site Ten Ton Hammer. The whole concept of Google is to allow the user to determine what information they want to see, and to provide the search results that best fit the user’s preferences.

Gazerk taps into that desire to customize information by having the search filters. The user can search for a game, and with a mouse-click, they can get information about blogs, screenshots, news, downloads, videos and cheats. Beyond that, they don’t really add more. To put that in perspective, Gazerk has been around for only a few months, and Google has been around for years. I'm sure that the creative people at Ziff Davis have a few upgrades planned. As the needs of the users increase, Gazerk will have to be on the forefront of those needs to stay fresh, relevant and useful.

It’s undeniable that the Ziff Davis network knows games, they’ve spent years perfecting their art and reputation. While they’re new on the search engine front, it’s going to be an exciting time to see how they add their expertise to Gazerk as more media moves online.

Conclusions and Last Thoughts

It’s exciting to see Gazerk changing through iterations. It’s that kind of mobility and flexibility that will help them capture more and more users. Despite my minor critiques, I like what they’ve done with the site, I like the changes and I like the fact that they are continuing to tweak the engine under the hood. Am I going to switch from searching Google to Gazerk? I just added their plugin for the FireFox browser to my search bar and I will be putting Gazerk through some more tests over time. If they continue to provide good information and if I find that they consistently have what I want to find, I will probably find myself using it more and more. I have always liked Ziff Davis and I am thoroughly enjoying my experience on the 1UP network as well. Gazerk has made some very good first steps in the right direction. However, with the global Wazap! gaming search engine making some serious inroads, I look forward to seeing how Gazerk responds to the emerging challenge.

JP Sherman is the Manager of Business Intelligence for MarketSmart Interactive. His team includes experts in usability and design, competitive intelligence and analytics. He's always open to have a conversation about a wide range of subjects, from search engines, to statistics, from online gaming to behavioral analysis. Contact JP Sherman at jp.sherman@marketsmartinteractive.com to start that conversation.

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