Does google actually WANT people to find things?

[cawingcrow]

I just had an instructor come to me as the "search expert" (his term) because he was having trouble narrowing things down to relevant results while still actually getting results for something he was searching for.

I started explaining basic search strategies to him as I walked over to the computer to show him how to find more information on searching. I vaguely remembered google having a really convoluted setup for actually locating help, but this was even more ridiculous than I remembered.

1. Looked at main page. Clicked on Advanced Search. Instructor was impressed.

2. Clicked on Advanced search tips option.

3. While finding this useful, it was not what I was looking for to show him, a basic search help was my goal. Luckily, over on the left side, there was a link for Basics of Search and clicking through on that finally came up with more of what I had in mind. There is even a Help Center link in the same column.

Which leads me to wonder if google is trying to keep librarians employed -- a quick look at the main google home page shows an obvious lack of links to any kind of help, much less the help center and the basic search information page.

A casual user (and heck, even most of the librarians I know) is NOT going to think to go look at the advanced search and then follow the link for advanced search help for that to get to basic help information. Clicking on About Us on the bottom of the page actually takes you to a page that has a Help link, but I really don't think most people are going to be thinking that help will be found there -- they really need a more direct link, if not on the front page, at least at the top of the results page (so folks who get bad results can click through and find ways to improve their search). There are too many pages in the world where "About Us" is dry corporate blather and contact info to assume it is going to have helpful info, imho.

Since they are actually bothering to provide help info, you'd think they'd put it where someone could actually FIND it...*sheesh*