dreadedmonkeygod . net

Dictionaries suck, mostly. But they have one thing that most web sites don't: guide words.

Guide words are words printed at the top of each page to let you know what's on that page. There are various arrangements, but my favorite goes like this: the first and last word on each page are printed in the top outside corner of the page. So you can just look at the top corners and know whether you're on the right page, or should keep going.

Now, take a look at TED's alphabetical listing of speakers. At the bottom of the page, what do you find? Page numbers! Why? Those numbers tell me nothing useful about where I might find the speaker I'm looking for.

Rather than this:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5   Next »

I'd much rather see this:

A - C | D - G | H - L | M - P | Q - Z   Next »

Same for anything alphabetized.

I'm fine with page numbers when there's no better option, or when they really do describe well what's going on. But the concept of a "page number" is just as much a holdover from print media as "page" is. It's time to really think about guide words, page numbers, calendar dates, and the way in which we help people find things on the web.