[Feedback] Site Feedback: BLAST search tool

[feedback at gramene.org]

URL         : http://ensembl.gramene.org/Multi/Tools/Blast?db=core

Subject     : Site Feedback: BLAST search tool 

Name        : Roger

Email       : Roger.Thilmony at ars.usda.gov

Organization: USDA

Comments    : 

Hi,
I regularly use the BLAST search tool at Gramene and I find the way that one has to select the species/genome in which to search quite cumbersome. It would be much better if there was a simple drop-down list of the possible species where in one click the species could be chosen.
The current system also always annoying defaults back to Arabidopsis (rather than the last species used) when one comes back to the website the next day. The current selection method requires the user has to essentially know plant taxonomy to find the plant of interest and click through the phyogenetic tree to get to it (just getting to japonica rice requires numerous clicks, and not so common knowledge that it is in the "BOP" clade). Although having this mode of selection as an option may be useful for some researchers, making all users do it this way is needlessly inconvenient. 
I would appreciate if the page was changed so that it required 1 (or at most two) clicks to select the species of interest. 
One other point, if the BLAST input page could entirely fit on the screen,  without having to scroll down to find the "Run" button, that would be better too. My computer has a medium to large screen, but the Run button is not visible with doing the extra step of scrolling down.
Thank-you for your efforts in providing Gramene -- a useful research tool-- to the scientific community. It is much appreciated. 

http://www.warelab.org/bugs/view.php?id=5618