Compete has shared some interesting data indicating that web users are increasingly using search engines to simply navigate to the sites they want to visit. For example, they are typing "facebook" in Google rather than just going to facebook.com from their address bar.

Following is a look at the fastest growing search terms according to Compete, for the top five search engines. You’ll notice that this list is largely dominated by brand names.

Enquiro Research has just released another eye tracking white paper: Barriers on a Website, which explains how users interact with graphics and rich media in the navigation of a website. This whitepaper reveals:

Welcome to Daryl Quenet’s introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), optimizing design, and how to maximize your websites search engine positioning for the major search engines.

When it comes to running an effective website that ranks well on the search engine results pages (SERPs), there are three major factors that can influence the number of search engine referrals (incoming searches) you get. This applies to all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Live).

Content Is King

Google has released a new experiments area where users can pilot some of the enhancements that the search giant is trialing. By signing up, you can give them a test drive and provide feedback to help shape their final release.

The experiments include alternative views for search results, keyboard shortcuts and new navigation options. All the experiments represent some interesting improvements to the current Google search experience.

U.S. and European mobile subscribers who use maps on their handsets will total more than 43 million in 2012, according to Berg Insight.

No matter how comfortable your car is, odds are that your house is even more cushy.  The house is also likely to have a better computer, monitor, and keyboard.  So it’s an important breakthrough that will allow American Mercedes-Benz owners to send directions from their computers to their cars.

Ever been in a hurry only to find out that the road you chose is backed up because of construction? Pain in the butt, isn’t it? Satellite navigation (GPS) device maker TomTom could be adopting a Web 2.0 approach to help soothe those pains.

A survey from Opinion Research Corporation for LeaseThis.com found that Internet users prefer direct navigation more than has been previously reported.

Sixty-four percent of Internet users said they bypass search engines and type keywords into their browsers attempting to be directed to the right URL.

Barry at SEL reports: MSN UK put a prefill in a search box, touting The Apprentice on BBC. Ouch!

Well it never just rains. It has to pour. I made an offer of some free SEO reviews a while back and a nasty confluence of happenings has upset my apple cart.

But I’m going to try and get some advice out to a few more people now. And this is going to be the toughest task I’ve had in a while. You see it never dawned on me that so many folk would be on hosted blogs. Let’s just say that optimising Blogspot is not a straight forward task.

If you’re like most companies, you spend a lot of time obsessing over your home page, but maybe not enough time on your destination pages. As a proponent of doing things wrong quickly, I don’t recommend spending hours on each page trying to make it perfect. So, instead, what’s a quick way to check out the information architecture of those pages?

The Future of Communities Blog — Social browsing vs. technology-enabled navigation – The future of communities points us to an interesting academic research paper done analyzing behavior on Flickr.

The paper, written by Kristina Lerman at USC and Laurie Jones at Mills College, looks at how views, faves, and comments are generated at Flickr.

Their conclusion?

Though you could read about the overall process of creating natural websites and integrating all aspects of web design, SEO, usability and accessibility in the process before, some more information about structuring your website may be useful as well.

Google has released a major update to its Book Search in an effort to provide a more organic reading experience to the user as well as scholarly resources for readers wishing to delve deeper into the academic community’s take on a particular book.

As you browse the Web, you will find sites that implement just about every type of navigation scheme you can think of and then even some more!

Every shopping experience is framed by a specific set of navigational elements. This is as true in traditional retail as it is on the web.

Have you ever been lost on a highway late at night? It’s not a fun feeling.

A very important point to consider while designing a website is proper navigation.