Jerff Atwood has a blog post entitled Google's Number One UI Mistake where he writes
Google's user interface minimalism is admirable. But there's one part of their homepage UI, downloaded millions of times per day, that leaves me scratching my head:
Does anyone actually use the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button? I've been an avid Google user since 2000; I use it somewhere between dozens and hundreds of times per day. But I can count on one hand the number of times I've clicked on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.
...
I urge us to Omit Needless Buttons. I hope the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button isn't considered a sacred cow at Google. Removing it would be one small step for Google, but a giant collective improvement in the default search user interface for users around the world.
A number of Jeff’s readers chimed in with the reason why Jeff is mistaken about this being a user interface “mistake” on Google’s part.
Robert Cooper wrote the following as part of his response
Google actually brought that up when they were user testing the UI a while back. (I can't remember where I read the story) But the crux of it was, the users actually LIKE having that button there, and rated the search interface lower when it wasn't there.
Geoff Wilson also validates the idea that this is on purpose in his response which is excerpted below
I remember listening to a google staffer on a podcast a while ago, and the reason the "I feel lucky" button stays is not its click through rates, but the message it sends about google's corporate culture.
Apparently, users felt Google was more human by having something quirky like that on the front page. It doesn't have lots of people click on it, but it encouraged more people to click on the main "Google Search" button.
and here’s one more comment excerpt, this time from Max
They can't remove that button now, it's part of their branding, part of their identity. They would be no more likely to stop updating their logo with colorful playful holiday-appropriate images (the shock of all that wasted bandwidth as proxy servers everywhere have to recache it!) than they would to remove that button.
Needless to say, the connection that branding builds between the user and the service/company is important. This button and the feeling of playfulness that it reflects on google even moreso. The few extra bytes of page size and the small extra cognitive load is more than made up for the positive feelings it engenders in users.
Building a connection with the users of your software is important. There’s nothing like a little playfulness and humor to make your company and your software seem a lot more friendly to your customers.
译文:
网站的用户界面，等同于网站的品牌
Jerff Atwood写了一篇博客，内容是关于“Google在用户界面设计上所犯的第一大错误”。
Google保守的用户界面是值得人称赞的。但是他们主页用户界面上的一部分，那个每天被登录数百万次的地方，总是让我摸不着头脑：
请问，到底有没有人会点击“手气不错”这个按纽呢？自从2000年起，我就一直是Google的忠实用户，我平均一天会使用它几十次，有时候甚至要上百次。但是用到“手气不错”这个按纽的次数，一只手都能数过来。
……
我希望我们可以省去那些不需要的按纽。我希望在Google，“
手气不错”这个按纽并不是一个神圣的、不可改变的事物。移除这个按纽，对Google来说，只是一个小小的举措，但是对全世界使用其搜索界面的用户来说，是一个巨大的进步。
许多Jerff的读者对于Jerff认为Google用户界面的“错误”这一观点，提出了自己的看法。
Robert Cooper写了他对此问题的看法，请看以下的内容：
实际上，在Google让用户测试界面时，他们也提出过这样的问题。（我忘记是在哪里读到过这样的信息）但关键的是，
用户们喜欢有这样的按纽在那里，并且，当按纽被取消时，搜索界面的使用频率降低了。
Geoff Wilson也验证了“按纽是故意放在那里的”这一观点。以下是引用自他对此问题的回应：
我记得前阵子听到一名Google的员工在播客上说，
“手气不错”的按纽仍旧存在的原因并不是通过它来获得点击率，而是它传递了Google的公司文化这一信息。显然，用户们觉得，在首页上放一些奇特的东西，这一举措显得Google非常人性化。并没有很多人去点击它，但是它让更多人去点击“Google搜索”按纽。
以下是摘录自Max对此问题的看法：
他们现在还不能移除这个按纽，
因为这是他们品牌与身份的一部分。
与移除那个按纽相比，他们更不可能在特别的节日去停止更新他们那些有趣的、色彩鲜艳的代表他们商标的图片（为了让每个地方的代理服务器都访问到它，这大量浪费了代宽）。
不用说，
在用户和服务/公司之间建立品牌联系是非常重要的。这个按纽和那些有趣的商标图片，在Google更是这样体现的。
在你的软件用户中建立一种联系，这是非常重要的。没有什么能比得上用一点有趣和幽默去让你的公司及你的软件看起来对你的客户更友好。