A Dedicated 9.1 User Tries Desktop, Part 7 -- Keywords

Posted Oct 22nd 2008 2:43PM by Summer

Keywords. Ahhh, I love Keywords. Since I'm lazy, it should come as no surprise that I love the one-click ease of Keywords. Keywords were actually a big reason why I was a reluctant adopter when it came to using AOL Desktop. I had heard they were no longer available.

Luckily that is not the case. In fact, I like the version of Keywords in AOL 10.1 better than using AOL 9.1. Previously, using AOL 9.1, if I didn't know the exact Keyword I got nowhere. Little details made a huge difference -- especially if I didn't know how to spell the Keyword. These limitations defeated the purposed of using the Keyword shortcut entirely. On top of that, I'm a glutton for punishment. So if I had a Keyword wrong, I would become obsessed typing Control + K and then trying various combinations of letters and words to figure out exactly what it would take to get to the Web site I wanted. The ironic thing is that if I had just used Search to begin with, I'd have saved a LOT more time and clicks.

This is what's nice about the Desktop version of Keywords. Using Keywords takes you to a Search page. If a Keyword exists, you'll find that link up top. However, if you misspell the Keyword (that'd be me) or don't have it exactly right (that'd be me too), it still gives you all the relevant results.

So yes, the old Keywords were convenient because you got to your destination in one-click IF you had your Keyword exactly right. Now I have an extra click when I use Keywords since I get the Search results first, but I also have a handy safety net if I don't know what I'm doing -- which, as I have noted many times, is more often than not.

P.S. -- I heard rumors that they will soon be doing beta testing for the next version of Desktop, so more on that coming soon! When it comes out, I'll take a quick look and let you know. Also, if you're interested, you can join the beta group at http://beta.aol.com.

Talk to you soon

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Resources

Most Commented Posts

Most Recent Comments

Blogroll

About The Team

Terrie is the lead product manager on the AOL Desktop Affinity software. Terrie works to define new views of Desktop. Like the Asylum Desktop and LemonDrop Desktop. Take a look, they are neat!

Summer is a Sr. Manager for AOL Member Communications. While she has no ties directly to the product development team, she has been a contributor to many AOL blogs over the last few years and is excited to bring a non-product team perspective to the Desktop blog.

Subscribe

Subscribe to AOL Desktop Blog News & Updates

Feed by Mail:

© 2008 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved

Get the behind-the-scenes perspective on Windows Desktop Application development at AOL. Learn about new features, and provide feedback and suggestions to the people who build AOL software.