Non-contextual “next page” and “more” results
No more more pages, takes a look at the meaning of returing results as 1..10 and the more button.
Sites like Digg.com, Diggdot.us etc, utilise the offset=10 or page=2 So if new stories come in, the offset becomes irrelevant. This is often the case for me, as I leave my browser open, then come back an our later for the “next page”. The stories get out of sink, because what was on page 1 is pushed down the page or even to the next. I think that using time offsets would be more relevant. For example:
- next-page=20060602 (anything from this date onwards)
- entries=20060602-1400 (include a date time if required)
- next-items-from=some-internal-id-thats-sequential
So the question is “offset from what?”
If your content on Page 2 keep changing, then page=2 does not make sense at all.
News items will conform to a chronological sequence, so paging via time makes sense.
Even Googles “1 .. 10 Next” doesn’t really make sense to the user, as we don’t know the ranking mechanism (and the page rank can change). It may as well be just a “more” button. Sites like del.icio.us allow you to slice and dice by time (earlier or later than current page) in the context of your selected tags. Again, the entries are time sensitive (i.e. in the order you bookmarked them), so this makes sense.
Anyway .. it’s food for thought when your using a next, more or page X link for navigation.