2022
Good day all.
In response to the questions and answers rollout in the last 3-4 months, this is my feedback regarding it. It's already been lost in the inundation of posts on the announcement/blog posts, but this commotion and the implementation of the Q&A maps feature I believe is fairly panned as an unfortunate "miss". Here's 13 Reasons Why:
- First of all, the appearance of a textbox is interrupting the flow of basic Google searches, counted reviews/ratings (unless there were a function that could transfer such a "question" into the reviews section, but gauging a star rating without the user's consent would be undesirable. There is always the prospect of written reviews without a star rating, but they really don't make sense.
- The immense amount of spelling mistakes, incomplete sentences, complete gobbledigook, astonishing capitalisation and plain idiocy that comes from the general public gauges whether the ability to either ask questions or provide answers should be accessible to everyone.
- Given the inner social media trolls, they tend to relish on the negative. There is a pizza parlour that only has one "question" in plain sight and it's a vent about the poor quality of food they've received, and already a whole bunch of "answers" are essentially other local guides/users all sharing the same sentiment and making complaints, without leaving any ratings.
- Nonsense questions with nonsense answers, with plentiful examples given above. What I've realised is that although we ought for the best when the questions were asked, sometimes these make a mockery of the business/listing.
- The fact that any user who types in any answer will be rewarded with three points, regardless of accuracy or trueness. People will be given points just for typing "Don't know" or making a dumb remark.
- There starts to distinguish a fine line between the people who actually ask the questions, and those who don't. Trying to put this in a nice way, those with a higher IQ and sensibility will actually research and hopefully get to the answer they're looking for, and those who are quite lazy or not so bright will just ask anything, and refuse to actually perform a Google search. While there might be merit in asking because of how much conflicting information exists on the Internet, local guides/users are people too, and many of them really don't care, especially if the question is either too vague or too specific. Let me tell you that probably 90% of my answers are responses to people asking about the address, phone number or opening hours, and it's this: "It's on the listing." followed by some sort of snide remark like "Please open your eyes.", "Be more attentive." or "You tried."
- This is more of a curiousity. When a person's question has been answered, do they receive a notification? I do not think that they do, which brings me to the point that I don't think that people backtrack or look back at the questions that they ask, as most of them are only submitted at the spur of the moment, and then probably have just searched on Google subsequently.
- People do not mark the most helpful question and answer that helps the general public. Instead, they tend to gravitate towards plain stupidity that give them a laugh. There are plenty of other questions and answers pairs that are much more elusive and useful in information but insanity reigns supreme.
Caption: The 'top' questions marked 'Helpful?' for the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
There is an influx of personal information being put onto the map listings via these questions. This can stem from Tax File Numbers (aka Social Security numbers), addresses, phone numbers, emails, to even the full disclosure of some certain employee's name and attempting to publicly roast them. If I'm experiencing these with all of the notifications I get every 15-30 minutes of places where I have previously passed, imagine all the places we haven't passed and the internal conflict that happens with small businesses and their users.
- About 30% of the time, when I receive a notification of a place, I open it immediately and when it opens it already says that the question was removed? Why should I get a notification about a question if it doesn't even exist or it's marked for deletion/flagged due to filters? Additionally, 10% of questions that come from a notification are already answered by multiple people even right after I receive the notification, how does that work? But for the former, the notification should not go out before the filters or removals are applied.
- I receive notifications about places that I have taken pictures of. In my defence, I believe the notifications should only go out if someone has marked that they have actually been there and checked in by clicking Yes to "Are you here now?" Of course this allows users to have a broader amount of questions and questioners being open to more questions, but it will allow an experienced person who has checked in been at the place to provide a more honest, and accurate answer.
- The reporting process. It has to load to a screen first (give or take 5 seconds) with some buttons that respond a little late. It is not instantaneous such as removing photos on a mobile device, which is the easiest by far. Don't get me started with trying to report photos via the desktop version. Also the fact that questions and answers aren't viewable on desktop maps (which I am grateful for).
- Everything in the spoiler tag/list above.
Maybe I'm being a little mean and biased since my observations are all from Australia (and you know how some Aussies can be at times...) I've seen in places like New York that it seems like there are plenty of Local Guides who are asking educated questions with other Local Guides answering with educated, succinct answers and are also widely using the Helpful? feature to help stamp out spam and fizzle down the strange questions. I don't mean to insult the brainchild of a few Googlers/engineers, but this is my opinion. I can't believe I had to think of 13 individual reasons, now that number and show is stuck in my head.
Anywho these are my two cents as well. And as always, I have added quite a few entries to the list above, feel free to subscribe to this post for updates! Yay!
Tagging users who might find this useful: @NFN, @LucioV, @davidcox, @ErmesT, @AkmalB, @CrackedLCD. I know this post in particular might warrant a move to the 'Feedback and features' board but I wouldn't care less.
I need to show you these guys....
These are related to a LEGO Store... I think everyone knows what LEGO is....
The question: "Who builds the lego sets?"
The answer they give:"I think they come already built" No words
