Why search should be in top-right corner? [duplicate]

Question

I heard many times that programs/web applications should have search box positioned in upper-right corner of window/page. I wonder if this is really important?

For example users are now searching by entering keywords to address bar (Google Chrome) rather than to search field positioned on right-hand side of the browser.

I also see that some popular sites (e.g. github) have it's own dedicated search page. Even If you go to Yahoo or YouTube or Google results, search is on left-top instead of right-top.

So can search box be positioned in other places than upper-right corner to be effective? For example left side of page or separate search page?

Answer 1

Positioning search in the top-right is a well established convention for sites where search is not a central feature of the service.

Clearly the positioning of the box isn't crucial to it's funtion but as with any other convention, it's advisable to adhere to it to avoid confusing users, unless there is a good reason to break it.

For example search engines and ecommerce sites typically position search centrally as it's the action they most want users to take, whereas content sites like a blog or a forum will usually position search top right.