jecasc - 4:35 pm on Aug 31, 2009 (gmt 0)

Isn't it "human" to ask a question or offer alternatives when in doubt? So the "Do/Did you mean" functionality that search engines offer is of some help.

Google was fine when it simply offered suggestions. If I enter "wodget", the hint "Did you mean widget" can be helpful.

The employee I mentioned in my post further above made a mistake: He noticed a potential error from the customers side, but instead of contacting the customer and asking if she had made a mistake he simply took the mistake for granted - and corrected the error which turned out to be none - and thereby caused a lot of trouble.

Google is acting the same today. If I enter "google.com" it is simply wrong to detect my IP and redirect me to Google Germany. The correct thing to do is stay at google.com and present a link at the bottom "Go to Google Germany" or in german: "Gehe zu Google Deutschland".

If I enter "wodget" instead of "widget" it's a smart move to detect that "wodget" only returns 2000 results and is probably a mistake and offer a "Did you mean widget." However it's not ok to simply take that mistake for granted and deliver search results for "widget".

I had to let the employee go, because he made mistakes like that more than once, and I am constantly looking for alternatives to Google because its behaviour has started to annoy me. Google - you are on notice.

[edited by: tedster at 5:48 pm (utc) on Aug. 31, 2009]
[edit reason] no personal links, please [/edit]