wow. one line of code will REALLY take a longer time to load. and it’s i n the way SO MUCH! I think I’ll faint… they have made a TERRIBLE FLAW!
HAHAHAHA!
No, really, I use it, but only when I know what the first result is, like “putty” brings you to the PuTTY (windows telnet client) homepage. however I use it from the google search bar in firefox (the real one, not the one that FF provides automatically).
“They can’t remove that button now, it’s part of their branding, part of their identity.”
How can it be part of their identity when no one uses it?
I’ve never used the lucky button, nor do I know anyone who does. Though, I’ve actually been asked “Which one do I press?” before.
Jeff, the usability experts at Google have found out that they need it there, even if almost nobody uses it. In fact, if nobody at all used it, the button would still be there. It’s part of the corporate identity. It was in 2001, it still is now, and it will be for the next young people who use Google for the first time.
You seem to keep repeating how minor its uses are and how it’s a waste of space - why don’t you trust the people at Google? They know how this stuff works.
As for the person who suggested Blackle - that thing doesn’t save power except on old CRT monitors. It won’t save power for anybody reading Coding Horror - I hope!
The “I’m feeling lucky” button exists solely so that Google can sell risqu branded clothing. I’m sure they make billions on this. 
I’m going to admit to being a moron.
I’ve pressed the Lucky button and was confused by it. I hadn’t typed any text into the search box so it did nothing. My mistake was to assume that this button would return a completely random page. I didn’t even think that it would require some search text.
Now I’m going to extend the view of how stupid I am.
So here I was with the Lucky button doing nothing. It didn’t work the first time, nor did it ever work in the dozen times I then clicked on it. I was retarded enough to keep clicking on something that did nothing - or at least didn’t work how I expected.
I’ve never successfully used the Lucky button because I’m unlucky enough to lack a brain.
Ya, I’m not sure I can follow Jeff’s logic completely, but I will throw in my $0.02 and say that I’ve never used the button and have often scratched my head over it.
Hey, I just thought of another feature.
Since many people use IFL to quick-jump to certain web pages based on keywords, there should be a way of finding out the shortest (easiest) keywords that’ll take you there. IOW I wish I could ask google: “what’s the shortest/easiest thing to type in to get to ___ using IFL”.
I use it all the time, and if they take it away, I will be pissed. Removing it will mean an extra page load for those of us who use it – which is not an improvement. Please cease this crusade to degrade my user experience!
honestly, isn’t there a little room for irreverence on the web? Stuff like that says to me that google still has a sense of humor despite it’s size.
Little things like that and google’s picture tributes to special days/people make me like them just as readily as speedy and accurate results do.
I use it all the time. I want to check news bbc. Jut type it in and tab twice and hit enter. The front page of the BBC news site is there.
Ditto any site that you know is going to be first in their results.
Useful, saves playing around with Favorites and typing in address bars.
Believe it or not, but there are still people out there who do not know what ‘Google’ is and are just learning the ropes of the online world. So while this feature, to us, may be old and annoying to many other of the hermits out there, it defines Google as Google.
It’s a part of the Google identity. And besides, it’s not useless as many people have pointed out. If I’m certain about the search term, I always go for it. Besides, it gives me a pleasant kick to see the exact page I want pop up immediately.
And as for the keyboard utility statement, tab+tab+enter will do the trick without resorting to the apparently offensive mouse.
Google’s always stood behind their youthful “do-no-evil” image as opposed to other heavyweight corportations. So even though they admittedly rule the Web, it doesn’t mean they have to give up supposedly frivolous features like decorating logos on holidays or the “Lucky” button (which is featured on the toolbar, by the way).
A little fun isn’t that bad you know
All seriousness aside, The “I’m Feeling Lucky” button has its risks.
The number one cause of death on the Internet is typing “Chuck Norris” in Google search and clicking “I’m Feeling Lucky”.
Apologies for providing the lame joke. I agree the IFL button is likely not used much, but certainly part of the Google identity. Just as they edit the Google logo at times with changing seasons etc. I’ve always expected it to be there without being particularly tempted to use it.
Interestingly, it’s perhaps the only way to use Google without coming across any AdWords. It’s a great user for power users I think. You could argue only 1% of Office users use VBA, but if that 1% is significant, then it’s important not to lose that 1%. For Google that 1% probably represents millions of users.
What a worthless argument? I am sure if someone feel the need for the “Search” button, they will click “I’m feeling lucky” button as well. I have been using google for 7-8 years and I don’t think I’ve actually clicked “Search” button. Most of the times the “Enter” key does the work for me.
Once I was looking for an online listing of UNIX man pages. True story. I typed in “man page” into Google, and I pressed “I’m Feeling Lucky”.
That was the last time I pressed the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.
I use the I’m feeling lucky button all the time. I would imagine it would also be useful for people who like to type actual URLs in the search box, and then click the I’m feeling lucky button to get to the page rather than the search results, (saves a click).
Brian.
Jeff, sometimes you get going on the most trivial stuff… come on man, dig deeper!
“Regarding the Go buttons that go with browser address bars, if you copy and paste a URL using just the mouse, you’d hate to have your hand leave the mouse to find the Enter key. So, it works both ways :)”
The people at Opera realized this was a problem and added a second paste function to the right-click menu for the address and search bars. It’s named Paste and Go, and is also mapped to Ctrl+B on the keyboard for those keyboardists who want to paste and go in one less keystroke.