Have you ever seen someone who, instead of putting a web address into their browser address bar as you’d expect, chooses to put the address into Google and do a search on it, then click the first link?? People who do this bizarre series of actions to view a website I now call “Google Surfers”.
A chap phoned me at work the other day to ask where all his websites had gone… I didn’t really get what he meant so I got his screen up and asked him to show me and he proceeded to type “www.” into the Google search box which, with Google Suggest being turned on immediately starting suggesting results such as www.facebook.com www.bbc.co.uk etc. and the chap said he’d never even been on Facebook before! It turned out what he was after was his auto-complete history because that’s how he browses the net.
And it’s wrong in so many ways. Why not press the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button which would accomplish the same as clicking Search then clicking the first result? Why not actually type a web address into the address bar in the first place!? Why not bookmark frequently visited pages so you don’t even have to type anything in at all?!? What if the first result on the URL searched for isn’t the site they’re after by some random occurrence on Google which could happen? The mind boggles.
What’s gone wrong in the way people are taught to use the Internet which makes them think that’s the way everyone does it?
I tend to sometimes accidentally put the url I’ve copied into the search box, and don’t realise until the results page loads. I sigh to myself and usually go for the link anyway.
Except for php based sites. The links just won’t work then and I have to re-paste. Madness.
My boss does this, it’s very frustrating. All it comes down to is he thinks he knows what he is doing so won’t listen to suggestions, the best one was the day he wanted to show me something to do with a listing on yell.com, so he went to google and then searched for yell.com and then searched for something yell.com and then couldn’t find or explain what he wanted to show me.
I’ve seen one better.
Using the default search in IE (Windows live), search for Google, click first link.
Then Google for Youtube, click first link.
Heh, I’ve done that on occasions (what Chris says), but it’s not my usual manner of finding sites, for sure. I do know some people, generally older people who are less experienced with the Internet or computers, who tend to find things this way, though, even when they know the web site address. I guess it works, even if it is a bit daft.