What happens when an article about logging using Facebook Connect achieves a high ranking in Google? You get an extremely interesting and humorous insight into the way many people use the internet.

Rather than typing Facebook into the address bar, many Facebook users get to their beloved social media by searching Google for “Facebook login”. Unfortunately earlier this month Read Write Web published a post about Facebook Connect which appeared above the actual Facebook login in Google results. Believing Facebook had changed it’s design and unable to login, hundreds of disgruntled Facebook users began venting their frustration via the comments on Read Write Web.

Check out the first couple of pages of comments on ReadWriteWeb for a laugh.

From a UX perspective it’s particularly disturbing that so many people missed so many cues that they were on the wrong website. Even when other uses pointed out the mistake they still didn’t understand the mix up and kept commenting.

Here’s an interesting (albeit brief) dissection of how rich autocomplete is used in some high profile online retail websites.

Trendspotting: Rich Autocomplete in Site Search | Get Elastic

CAPTCHAS invoke a number of reactions amongst both designers and users. They are a common source of frustration, consuming screen real estate and more importantly the user’s time spent deciphering and completing them. Studies have shown that they are generally bad for business.

However they are still widely used as they are considered a necessary evil in protecting websites against bots by generating tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot.

As you may have heard Google recently purchased ReCAPTCHA to accelerate its massive efforts to scan tens of millions of books and periodicals.

What you may not know is just how Google is utilising this technology to actually use the (re)CATPCHAS you’re filling out. By completing a reCAPTCHA you are directly helping Google in their quest to digitise the world’s books.

Here is a surprisingly interesting presentation on what is a generally dull topic: Why Nerds Rule: Luis Von Ahn and reCAPTCHA

UPDATE: CAPTCHA’s: Tough on Sales & Common Way to Test User Tolerance | UX Booth

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Today we launched the new version of the Citysearch TV Guide. A huge leap forward from the old guide, this version now includes pay TV channels, the ability to personalise your preferences, enhanced time and display controls, a nifty widget and a much clearer interface.

http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au/tv