Google Groups Regroups With Beta

It's more than just a facelift, as Google took the existing Groups service that grew from its long-ago purchase of Dejanews into a more Googly look with an expanded set of features.

Google Groups beta, Brett Lider a user experience designer for Google Groups, commented on one aspect of the Groups Beta design. He found one issue to be a head-scratcher" ...there is one thing that is already driving me up the wall - the right sidebar. The "navigate using the left sidebar" convention isn't being used, potentially causing confusion. Conventions are wonderful things, and are usually a "free ticket" for people doing user experience work. Conventions avoid question marks - those evil things that make users "wonder". It looks like Google is using a convention, though, in keeping with its customary ad placement on the right side of a page, as they do in search results, Gmail inboxes, etc. Placing the navigation on the right gives users more area of the Groups Beta to play with as they customize their new groups. If navigation were on the left, that would limit the available space on the page by the width of the navigation elements. Tag: Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl Bookmark Murdok: David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.