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Comment by ja2ke | Hacker News Reader

Side note: With results-as-you-type now being the default even from the Google front page, isn't "I'm feeling lucky" a totally vestigial button at this point?

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Another non-cited story I've heard is an A/B test, or similar, was once done where they removed the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button from the front page, and an overwhelming number of users said they did not like the solitary search button. Having both gave the users a sense of choice, even though (as the story goes), "I'm feeling lucky" is used by only a small fraction of a percent of users.

And humorously enough, the present "I'm feeling lucky" button literally cannot be pressed ... except on the initial, empty search box ... under which circumstances it leads you to ... a list old Google Doodles... Feelin' Lucky now? Guy...

Umm, I just used it and it worked fine.

List > (i am feeling lucky) = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_%28programming_language%29

PS: Not everyone enables scripts.

I suppose it depends on the browser and whether you use Google instant (which is on by default).

As soon as I type a letter, the "lucky" button vanishes.

I agree that it looks better with two buttons, though I can't quite articulate why.

this is so because we instinctively feel unbalanced when we see a single legged object rather than a two legged one. we'd feel similarly unbalanced if the two legs (the buttons) were of very different widths.

I've heard this as well. Can't remember where from.

Thats funny. It has become an association at this point with Google.

I think it's only ever been used by snarky lmgtfy-ers.

Wrote a blog post a couple weeks ago about turning it into a keyword quick search.

http://www.pushingbits.net/posts/google-im-feeling-lucky-add...

Very useful.

The Firefox address bar can be set jump straight to the "I'm feeling lucky" result instead of showing search results when it's confide t enough in the search.

That behavior alone, which for some reason nobody else replicates as a feature of their browser, kept me using FF for years longer than I would have otherwise. The FF address bar is still best in class in my opinion.

Isn't the Search button useless as well? :D I suppose the only reason either is there is familiarity...

Haha true. I didn't think of it that way because my mind saw the homepage button and the search as you type button as "the same button" but yeah you're right. At this point (assuming you didn't disable scripts) the Google homepage needs nothing beyond an empty text field. No buttons, nothing. Weird.

I think it's a psychological trick that Google is using, trying to instill to you the idea that you 're lucky to be their customer. </conspiracy

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