Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Kim Seung-eon, leader of Naver's design lab, speaks during the Naver Design Colloquium conference at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, Friday. / Courtesy of Naver |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Naver said Friday its mobile version will revolve around a "green dot" interactive search button to enable users to have smarter web search experience.
"The green dot interactive search button will be Naver's new design identity and become a center pin that can respond to various changes in our services," said Kim Seung-eon, leader of Naver's design lab, during the Naver Design Colloquium, a conference for tech designers, at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul.
While the existing mobile version is a just minimized version of its PC web page, Korea's largest portal operator said Oct. 10 that it decided to place the green dot interactive search engine button on its mobile page for news articles and arising search terms.
Naver has faced mounting criticism over an opinion rigging scandal, in which a political blogger nicknamed Druking allegedly used a computer program to rig online opinions on news stories it carried.
In response, Naver CEO Han Seong-sook said in May that the firm will stop curating news articles on its mobile page. The firm also released a beta version of its mobile page available on Android operating system-powered smartphones, Oct. 10.
Kim said the firm decided to adopt the green dot system as it believes the new system will benefit users.
"In the PC era, users used our green window to search for something. Thinking about the next version of the green window, we thought the keyword for search engines in mobile era is touch. We hope the green dot will be a symbol that connects users to our services," said Kim.
Naver mobile is one of the most frequently used apps here with more than 30 million people using it daily. Designer Seo You-kyung said the firm has undergone difficulties in developing a new mobile version to satisfactorily provide services that can satisfy the wants of users.
"When we launched the mobile version, 350,000 people used the app monthly, but now more than 30 million people do this daily
Since it released the test version, Seo said the new mobile app could keep its users occupied 15 percent longer. "Though the sample size is small, we could see positive changes with the new mobile version," Seo said. Naver released a beta version for iPhone users, Nov. 8.
"For us, the users' experience from the trial version was very important because those responses became nourishment for us to provide a better service," Seo said.
The firm didn't reveal the exact date of the release, adding that it will launch the new mobile version after reviewing feedbacks from users.
