Love the 3D version of Google Street View – just need to find one of the many pairs of 3D glasses that are knocking around the house somewhere. Talking of Google, this advert popped up the other day…
Spot the (deliberate?) mistake
My first thought was to doubt the expertise of so-called experts in Google analytics who can’t even spell Google, then I started wondering whether this was actually done on purpose – a way of drawing people to their site so they can point out their error.  I could be over-analysing of course.
Although pointing out errors on Google doesn’t get you very far. We have been reporting an error regarding the addresses and phone numbers of the two Bradford Waterstone’s stores since late November and yet they still list, as the first result visible when you Google ‘Bradford’ and ‘Waterstone’s’, the address of the city centre store with the phone number of the Uni branch. We don’t mind fielding the phone calls in the week but, since we are not open at weekends or bank holidays, Google should really respond to our repeated pleas to get the facts straight!
I find it vaguely reassuring that Google, who routinely do things that would have been considered magic or science fiction not too long ago can’t cope with such normal things.
I often find that a search on Google maps for (eg) a school, church, or business can give you three results with pins in different places – often in the middle of a field.
Its not so reassuring when you have to explain it to customers…..but yes, it is something to know they are fallible. Can’t remember what I was reading where the author said that they were fed up with students thinking that ‘google’ was a synonym for ‘research’ but I heartily agree!