I just made a change to the navigation on my Palm Pre.  By default, the Pre has four main applications that you can launch from any screen.  Those are: Email, Contacts, Calendar, and Phone.

Those seem pretty obvious choices.  Of course you need the phone because ultimately that's the main function of the device.  Similarly, how can you keep track of who you call without your contact list easily accessible.  Email and Calendar are the next most important because those are things that constantly require your attention.

Well, I just realized that I don't actually care about the two "most important" items I just mentioned.  The Pre has a pretty nice universal search feature so if I start typing someone's name, it automatically gives me links to call that person or view their contact record.  

Why would I ever launch a phone dialing program?  I don't actually know anyone's number.  I always have to search through the contacts.  And why would I search through the contacts when I can find them faster using universal search?  So I removed both of those items from the main navigation bar and I'm not looking back.

So that got me thinking, am I cluttering up my web apps with navigation that simply isn't necessary because search or some other innovation makes them irrelevant?  Well, I don't think I am, but I want to keep this in the back of my mind.  Navigation is a critical UI element and it really hasn't seen too many innovations since...ever.

Can you think of any sites (including this one) that need to reconsider how users get to the real functionality?

Microsoft is generating some buzz for their new search engine, Bing.  This inspired all kinds of blog posts discussing whether Bing is better than Google.  My opinion makes me feel embarassingly out of touch.

I just don't get what either search engine can do to make my experience much better.  They both seem perfectly capable of getting me the answers I'm looking for.  I can't remember the last time I wanted to find something on Google and I had to look past the first page.

I'm not saying that search can't improve.  I think that ten years from now search will be a million times better than it is now.  I just can't imagine how.

When DVDs first came out I didn't get what the big deal was.  VHS looked just fine and rewinding isn't that big of a deal.  Obviously I was being an idiot, but I kind of feel the same way with search.  At least this time I realize I'm being too complacent.

So what do you think?  Assuming we're all currently pretty good at finding things on Google, what will be some of the major improvements in search over the next decade or two?