“Naam Google was een typefoutje”

Leuk voor de mythevorming rondom Google: Alan Williamson ging uit eten met Marissa Mayer van Google en ontfutselde haar opmerkelijke wetenswaardigheden. Een paar voorbeelden:

1. The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn’t know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. Infact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.

2. Due to the sparseness of the homepage, in early user tests they noted people just sitting looking at the screen. After a minute of nothingness, the tester intervened and asked ‘Whats up?’ to which they replied “We are waiting for the rest of it”. To solve that particular problem the Google Copyright message was inserted to act as a crude end of page marker.

4. The infamous “I feel lucky” is nearly never used. However, in trials it was found that removing it would somehow reduce the Google experience. Users wanted it kept. It was a comfort button.

10. The name ‘Google’ was an accident. A spelling mistake made by the original founders who thought they were going for ‘Googol’.

Maar het interessantste is tussen de regels te lezen: Google mag dan vaak een eigenzinnige indruk maken, het bedrijf maakt enorm veel werk van testpanels en bezoekstatistieken om nieuwe snufjes te evalueren.

» Alan Williamson