The Dark Side of Google continued...

Today I went searching for a “Google.com” mailing address and I used “Google.com” to search for the address. What I found were many other folks who with the same problem, “I can’t find a Google email address to ask a question.”

I found one that had an address was where Google sent some one and email and the return address was accounts-noreply@google.com, which the person could not respond too.

There some others but nothing specific. Then a friend told me that you can send an email to “Google” Support, but after an hour looking for where it was, I gave up.

On most sites when you go to a “Support” Tab or “Contact Us” and click, they give you the option to send an email with a question. Also on these sites these tabs are usually on the link you are in. You don’t have to go searching like you do on Google.

The other day I went to Google to look for a problem I was having with a Google Toolbar. I started with a link that led to another link that led to another link and so on for five more links. At the fifth link I found I needed to go back to where I started and try a different selection. This after reading every link I came to before continuing. “What a pain!” So I went back and tried again following more links with NOTHING getting accomplished. I spent a good hour looking and this is exactly what I am talking about. I don’t want to “waste” an hour looking for a “fix”. I want to send an email, wait for and answer, and while I am waiting move on to other tasks.

Now I am drawing the conclusion that Google is creating technology for an “Exclusive Community”. This community is all “techies”. The average user has been forgotten, lost in the corporate spaghetti of links on “Google.com”. I consider myself an average user and I know may folks who are far less as technical as me. I wonder what they do when they go to Google looking for a fix of a problem. My guess is they get frustrated much quicker than I do and end up calling some one like the “Geek Squad” and paying for something that should be free and easy.

Here is one suggestion for Google. When some one who is obviously a “non-technical” user starts to look for a “fix” on “Google.com” add a new page that simply says “May God be with you in your search for a solution. (Last time God was here looking he/she found NOTHING.) Good luck!”

Now you might ask how Google would know when a user is a “non-techie”. The answer is easy. Since Google tracks everything a user does when they use “Google.com”, they could write a script to analyze the contents and in the script create a formula that make decisions based on the results. They are technology leaders aren’t they?

Another suggestion is to survey “non-techies”. I see ads for Google surveys all the time around here. What they could do is gather up about 200 “non-techie” users and get some feed back on the Google.com site. An even bigger leap for Google would be “non-techie” users over fifty years old. I doubt if this leap would ever happen because based on the age of the “Exclusive Community” at corporate headquarters they may not be able to talk to older people. (Of course, they could bring in interpreters.)