The Big Thing With Results

So, AOL Search relaunched today for members (will launch for everyone else soon) with a ton of new features, a totally redesigned and rebuilt UI, and lots of “me” in it. The powers that be have given me the OK to link to the “in-client” view, which means that some stuff won’t work for you like it would for an AOL Member, especially Recent Searches. When it launches on the outside view next week, everything should work.\
It’s probably the last major search product I’ll work on, since I’m moving to a new role (they say I’ll have a bigger soapbox, but I’m hoping for a bigger stick) after I get back from Dublin (or maybe while I’m in Dublin… who knows?). So far, the reviews for AOL Search have been really great, better than any review I’ve seen in the five years I’ve been working on the product (yes, five years).\
Here’s a selection:

• CNet
• SearchEngineWatch
• John Battelle
• Financial Times
• Charlene Li\
  What am I most proud of? It’s really, really accessible. I made a special effort with this version to make sure that I did everything I could to make it a good example of accessibility on the web. There is unique alt text for all elements that need it, semantic markup (each result is a list item, and there are h3’s for each result type heading, making it easy to navigate with a screen reader), and some really interesting “tricks” with the CSS to make things accessible in IE without hamstringing me in “good” browsers.\
  So, check it out. If you have suggestions for improving its accessibility, please post a comment. I can’t promise all will be implemented, but I’ll make sure they get to the right people (because after tomorrow, I won’t be the right people anymore).