[contextfree]

I'm curious what these apps are that don't support the back button. The back stack is an integral part of the Silverlight framework on the phone - unless your app is XNA-based you would have to go out of your way not to support it.

btw, IMDB can't support the search button because it's actually not exposed to third-party developers. Use of the search button for in-app search is actually scrapped in Mango because people found it confusing - the built-in apps that support search now have their own on-screen search buttons.

[pedalpete]

Thanks for clarifying on the search button, and now that I'm going through apps on my phone, I can't seem to find the places where before I've found 'unexepected' use of the back-button exiting the app rather than taking me to the apps previous screen.

I guess that is really the problem, the majority of apps follow convention, but then every once in a while you get something that doesn't and it is gets confusing.

[contextfree]

Fair enough. My guess is that the apps that don't support it are mostly games, which generally use a different framework that doesn't bake in this or any other interface conventions. But I can see how any amount of inconsistency could prevent a feeling of confidence. I guess to me the fact that these games tend not to look or feel anything like other apps is enough to keep their behavior from polluting my subconscious mental model of expected behavior in general.