Re:Google’s decreasingly useful, spam-filled web search
by ydant on Thursday January 06, 2011 @08:15PM
(#2078102)
Google Maps (a different beast, of course) handles feedback exceptionally well. You're first thanked and promised a response, then a couple of days later you usually get a "you were right, we'll fix that and let you know when it's fixed", and then within a few months another "we fixed it, here's a link to what you reported (shown on Google Maps), please let us know if we still didn't get it right".
As a result, I enjoy reporting issues to Google Maps, because I know they will be addressed. Maps are dealing with a lot more tangible and unchanging dataset than Search, though.
Also, google is one of the worst companies, if not the worst company, at dealing with user feedback. You can't just expect people to give you feedback but never return the favor in any way. People have the feeling that giving feedback to google is like throwing things into a black hole - like talking to a machine - if you know no one will answer you and you will never know if anyone even read your feedback, not even a little thank you note or a clue that the feedback was useful, there isn't much incentive to give feedback, now is there?