here is my finance menu/UI

"Web Images Maps News Video Gmail more ▼ Blogs Books Calendar Documents Finance Groups Photos Scholar even more »

and here is my gmail menu/UI
Gmail Calendar Documents Photos Groups Web more ▼

can' they keep the nomenclature of the menu items the same ? or must I ask what are the reasons to change the order of menu items ?

One is supposedly a services-based menu and the other one is a product-based menu, although some items creep into both (like Gmail and Web, albeit placed at the end). I seem to remember Marissa explaining this at Searchology. Here's what I said at the time:

<< Marissa explained that this bar will show its “nearest neighbors” – meaning that when you’re on different pages, you’ll see different links. For example, if you’re on a search engine results page, you’ll see links to Images and News, as you’re likely to want links to other search results, but if you’re using Gmail you’ll see links to Calendar and Documents instead. Personally, I’d like to see consistency across all pages – and even be able to choose my own links. >>

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-05-16-n73.html

ok the “nearest neighbors” argument seems feasible – but what of the user experience ? Is it just me or do others also like to see consistency across all pages ??

What do you all think ? I mean seriously – we all use google services and products (else we wont be google fans correct ?)

Given "nearest neighbors" vs "consistency" --which one would you prefer being implemented ?

Let me pick my own neighbors, else consistency. Sometimes I don't like my current neighbors.

What I would like is a drop-down menu like the new ones in Youtube (no need to click on 'newest videos' to see other filters, just move the mouse on it)
I would like to see 2-3 categories:

* one called search which proposes 'web', 'maps', 'video', 'image', 'alerts', 'shopping', 'shopping', 'books', blogs', 'scholar'....
* another called apps for 'gmail', 'reader', 'calendar', 'docs', 'finance', 'reader'...
* and another for the labs: 'google trends', 'checkout trends', etc.

And every time I click on one of these services, I want that it lauch a search in it: now, clicking on the Youtube link triggers no search :(
For the labs link, it would be a great deal since I always tape 'google trends' to go there. Quite long.

I like Jérôme's idea of categorizing them into a few dropdowns, though that may confuse some people...regardless of how they change it I think they need to introduce some way for users to personalize/modify it.