On 2012-05-21, at 17:06, Kingsley Idehen wrote: > On 5/21/12 12:01 PM, Steve Harris wrote: …
>>> All vague commentary, the kind that is kinda scary and a little creepy. >>> Again, I doubt it was intentional, but there are some realities bubbling up >>> to the surface re. profiles and the Web etc.. >> >> While I think Google in general behaves in quite a creepy way, I suspect >> this is more about the realities of rolling out complex software to a >> billion people. >> >> It's extremely challenging, and doing it for all users simultaneously is >> very unwise. We have many times less users, and still do staged deployments. > > Of course "big bang" releases are unwise. Just as it is unwise to make a > staggered release and not make it crystal clear to the target audience. You might be surprised to discover quite what a tiny proportion of the userbase cares, but doesn't understand stage rollouts. Though, I agree, if it was me, I would have said something near the link. > As I stated in one of my post, the real issue here is that they had a live > demo page [1] with a link [2]. Clicking on said link provided different > results (i.e., different web pages) for different users. All they had to do > was indicate that results would vary due to the staggered nature of their > rollout. Yup. they do that with everything though, so I expect most SEO and online marketing people (Google's only real customers) already expect that. >> All kinds of weird corner cases can't be tested in pre-production, and you >> don't want to annoy your entire user-base in one fell swoop :) > > Of course, but note the point I am making about clarity. >> >> FWIW, I now see it on google.com, but not google.co.uk - doesn't matter if >> I'm logged in or not. > > Yes, and that's today, 21st May 2012 :-) Yup, they roll out slowly. I understand that Google Mail rollouts can take weeks, and that's a much smaller product that Search. To be clear, I'm not defending them, just pointing out that they probably don't care :) and with good reason. - Steve > Links: > > 1. http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html -- > showcase page > 2. https://www.google.com/search?q=vincent+van+gogh -- "Give It A Try" link > that delivered different results (this page still provides no information > about the nature of the rollout etc..). > > >> >> - Steve >> >> -- >> Steve Harris, CTO >> Garlik, a part of Experian >> 1-3 Halford Road, Richmond, TW10 6AW, UK >> +44 20 8439 8203 http://www.garlik.com/ >> Registered in England and Wales 653331 VAT # 887 1335 93 >> Registered office: Landmark House, Experian Way, Nottingham, Notts, NG80 1ZZ >> > > > -- > > Regards, > > Kingsley Idehen > Founder & CEO > OpenLink Software > Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com > Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen > Twitter/Identi.ca handle: @kidehen > Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/about > LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen > > > > -- Steve Harris, CTO Garlik, a part of Experian 1-3 Halford Road, Richmond, TW10 6AW, UK +44 20 8439 8203 http://www.garlik.com/ Registered in England and Wales 653331 VAT # 887 1335 93 Registered office: Landmark House, Experian Way, Nottingham, Notts, NG80 1ZZ
