How Google Failed Its Users and Gave Birth to an Internet Meme
It's not every day you get to watch the birth of an Internet meme, but yesterday, I was there at the moment of conception. I didn't give birth to it but I certainly played a completely inadvertent and circumstantial part.
Within a half an hour of posting, the number of visitors had skyrocketed. It looked like a real winner. An hour later, it had reached the number of visitors an average post might see in an entire day. I figured I'd hit a home run.
But then the comments started rolling in.
"When can we log in?" asked one commenter.
"I WANT THE OLD FAFEBOOK BACK THIS SHIT IS WACK!!!!!" complained the next.
At first we wondered if it could be a giant, orchestrated prank. We weren't sure who we might have offended, but obviously it was a premeditated assault. When we looked at our traffic, however, we didn't see any of the usual suspects, just two little words on a very big website: "Facebook login" and Google. The post had become the number two search result.
By the end of the day, the post had several hundred comments and our back-channel chat room was still debating whether or not it could all be real.
It was like we had unearthed a long-lost city, the Atlantis of the Internet. But instead of treasures and gold we'd found a steady deluge of confused and frustrated users who had tried everything they knew to do and just wanted to log in to Facebook, damnit. But how had this happened? It certainly wasn't that thousands and thousands of people had just started searching for "facebook login" yesterday. This stream of people has been there all along and something is broken.
Google had completely failed its users. It put us, with a post about how an AOL partnership foreshadowed Facebook becoming the de facto user database, above the most logical search result possible - Facebook's login page.
While for us this was completely random, other search results show that this is actually a space that is otherwise intentionally occupied by sites trying to siphon off this traffic and profit from it. I don't think the first search result for "Facebook login" was actually English, and the one that followed wasn't either, but those two key words are used over and over.
By the next morning, the scale had tipped. News of the epic thread had started making its way around the social web, being retweeted across the Twitterverse, posted by early adopters on Buzz and submitted to sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, HackerNews and Fark.
"No, really," everyone seemed to be saying, "You GOTTA see this one."
Suddenly, the two worlds collided. The tech savvy ran head-on into the tech illiterate and mockery and disbelief started to overtake confusion as the general tone in the comment thread. As the post made its way around the web, other comment threads, like those on Reddit and MetaFilter, began mimicking the now infamous comments. I suddenly realized that we might be standing at that flash point, that moment where it begins - the immaculate conception of an Internet meme. I've always wanted to be there at that moment. I've always wondered about the first person that saw a lobster and said, "You know what? I'm going to eat that."
"I LIKE THE NEW ALL-BLUE FACEBOOK BUT CAN I JUST LOG IN NOW PLEEEEEZE?????!!!11" reads one comment on MetaFilter.
Another comment on Reddit reads, "IS THIS THE ARTICLE!!? ALL I SEE IS COMMENTS!!!!! HOW COME WHEN I TRY TO LOG IN I PEE ON MYSELF AND PASS OUT?!?? I LIKED REDDIT BEFORE THE PEE!!!"
One person has even written a sonnet, detailing the plight of the lost Facebook users.
While we mock those users, the simple fact is they haven't necessarily failed, something failed them. With all of our talk about the semantic Web and search engine optimization and tailoring search results to the individual user, there are thousands upon thousands of users performing the same simple search and following the same wrong road. If this were a standard traffic sign misdirecting this many people, it would have been pulled down long ago. There would have been outraged citizens at town meetings and special reports on the five o' clock news.
So, when five years down the road someone, somewhere, in a completely unrelated comment thread says "i need the old facebook this new one is very bad bbbbbbbbbbuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" I will be happy to say that I was there - I was around for the birth of that Internet meme. But I also hope that, by then, we've addressed the problem at the core. This is the Internet and these are its users.
If this many of them can't login to Facebook by typing that into Google and clicking on the first thing they see, maybe it's not them that are wrong - but Google.
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I think that people in general might be frustrated already with all of this new social networking shift that's going on with the search engines, and then, your article, placing in the serp's where and when it did, was sort of a tipping point.
I think we all like Google, and I think we all like Facebook .. but we don't like both, together, all at the same time.
Cheers
Actually, having read the comments on that previous article, I think people are also confused by the options here for leaving a comment. Many of the commenters appeared to have used their Facebook ID to leave a comment, in the same way I've used my Twitter account.
So perhaps they thought they were signing into Facebook, and didn't realise they were signing in using their FB ID to leave a comment here?
Of course, they must have found the article via Google, but that's not the only reason they were confused. And certainly FB have made one too many GUI changes lately, which really doesn't help matters. *sigh*
How Google Failed Its Users and Gave Birth to an Internet Meme @google
Mike this is great !!!!
Hundreds of millions spent by google to supposedly build and the best search engine in the world, and they cant even have the most logical result first.....
Its time to re examine search....I think that it is broken and that we have reached a wall with what can be done with the large amount of unstructured content on the internet.
http://www.factoetum.com/factoetum/Giant_Global_Graph_(Technology_Term)
We did this. This is our fault.
All the tech community buzz about the importance of "real time" has convinced the powers that be in the Googleplex that real-time results are really important to users, and should be surfaced above other, more evergreen search results.
That's fine when you're searching for "haiti earthquake" or "sarah palin notes on hand." But for the average web search by the average user, timeliness does not necessarily equate to relevance. That's what happened here.
While it seems that this is a failure of Google, I think it's much larger than that, and not just a Google thing. There are other search engines.
I just tried Google again. Facebook is the first search result, but above it is the article here, as the top NEWS article for the search. I didn't notice News results on Bing, but I really don't use that and am not familiar with how it works. Yahoo! put News results a couple of entries below the main results, which were Facebook.
There is a serious issue here. If people mistype, they could end up with anything. Why they aren't using a bookmark is beyond me. Even typing in the URL bar would make more sense than searching each time, especially if the history comes up and they can choose from that. I think a lot of the problem is that people don't really understand the internet and how to use it efficiently.
I'm a librarian. I deal with such basic misunderstandings of the internet/web/computer issues all the time. A lot of people don't quite get it and that includes folks who are on it all the time.
It's the same thing a lot of us (in the techie sect) see everyday...people fire up their browsers, Google is their home page, and when someone says "Okay so go to [whateversite.com] ... the person puts the URL into Google's search box. Not the address bar, the search box.
It seems then it isn't Google that has failed anyone, it's the browser authors. Google becomes the net, the net becomes Google. But the address bar is where you enter a URL.
Reminds me of the old military rhyme. "This is a rifle, this is a gun, one is for fighting...
@Warren - Agreed. I've been talking about what happened with this post with a number of friends and that was one of the points we got to - how "news" was given a higher status than that most logical search result.
This has been very fascinating to watch, and I'm really impressed with RWW for framing this as "something is wrong with sites/search/technologists" instead of the much easier "users are stupid." I hope we (who create this new world) realize that there aren't many of "us", but a whole bunch of "them" and our success depends ultimately on their success.
Well I think its certainly helping give exposure to RWW haha
I don't see how Google failed them. Someone, somewhere failed them, though. I'm far from a technorati, nor do I have a clue as to what a meme really means, but I know enoug to type in facebook.com or go to a bookmark to access a site. At the very least I know to read the url description/synopsis before clicking the link to it. Google hasn't failed educators and parents have failed.
Be nice to see where the lost cybersouls hail from. (US, UK, Brazil, where??)
I do not use Facebook, but I find it strange if facebook cares about their users, they at least educate them to type the uri into the url and not use a search engine to find something that does not need searched.
It only proves a larger point I have thought about facebook and its users. You gotta be stupid to be using it (or not).
I don't like the new design!!!!! Where did the Facebook logo and URL go?
How do I log on and check my pokes!!!!!!!
@tris
You have a point. I remember when the internet was "invented" circa the early '90s. Many people equated the internet to Netscape: They were one and the same. I suppose many people today feel that Google is the gateway to the internet; URL's are just like zip codes that only Google controls, designates and drives traffic to. But how do browser developer's contribute to the basic understanding of the web to this user base? I mean I figured Dot Com (someaddress.com) was understood by "all" by now to be a unique identifier to an specific slice of the web that was controlled and maintained by "someone".
Maybe we need revisit ad campaigns circa 1997: When evert ad on TV and radio highlighted their URL in the promotion. Wow, what a sweet position Google is in? Defining the destination of so many internet users?!?!?
NO. All this really shows is two things:
1.) How stupid RWW writers are that how they fail to understand basic SEM, and the new adjustments being made to accomodate algorithms to support real-time search. IE - don't use "FACEBOOK" and "LOGIN" as a headline and then pepper the story with both Key terms! Search engines work based on text.
and...
2.) How idiotic people are to not actually skim the search results before not only clicking, but commenting upon realizing that you're just a poorly thought out blog that has nothing to do with their logins.
Sadly, I can't decide who is dumber.
PS - Don't flatter yourselves and think you've started a meme.
PPS - Look over your links, it bush league when you can't properly hyperlink. (HINT: "that" -- they've probably changed it by the time you're reading this.)
Learn how the internet works before you write about it.
I think this goes beyond being a problem with Google. This is a problem with the structure of the web itself and operating systems. Why do you have to open a browser and figure out how to get to where you want to go? Especially if you have already been there before.
Chrome has taken a stab at this with its array of sites you commonly go to. Open Chrome, click big box that looks like Facebook, or whatever, and bang you are there. No messing about with address bars, urls, bookmarks, etc.
But why even make it take two steps? Why is the OS so dumb that it can't figure out that the user goes to Facebook quite often if not all the time and make a big button that says Facebook right on the desktop? One click or double click and there you go, you are right where you go every morning or evening.
This is UI design issue that goes way beyond search engines. It goes right to the core of how computers should work.
Google search may just be making us lazy.
The browser and app developers could also get more user friendly, so the "blame" can be spread around quite a bit.
From that comment thread it looks like people took the easy way out and clicked on the the first FB search mention with "login" rather than using the browser address bar, a bookmark or if they are heavy users could have dragged the url into the toolbar. Maybe the developers just thought people would discover it on their own
I think this goes beyond being a problem with Google. This is a problem with the structure of the web itself and operating systems. Why do you have to open a browser and figure out how to get to where you want to go? Especially if you have already been there before.
Chrome has taken a stab at this with its array of sites you commonly go to. Open Chrome, click big box that looks like Facebook, or whatever, and bang you are there. No messing about with address bars, urls, bookmarks, etc.
But why even make it take two steps? Why is the OS so dumb that it can't figure out that the user goes to Facebook quite often if not all the time and make a big button that says Facebook right on the desktop? One click or double click and there you go, you are right where you go every morning or evening.
This is UI design issue that goes way beyond search engines. It goes right to the core of how computers should work.
Any chance you could post a screencap of what the Google page looked like yesterday? Would love to use this a web usability example...
Paul
I don't think you can blame Google here (although you can for the new design of Chrome with the mix of search and URL). A search engine is just that. A search engine. It's not a definitive signpost saying 'this is the location of a particular place'. This is an important story, and to me more important than the Facebook login page so from my point of view when I type 'Facebook login' I want to come to this site.
The Google search returns give clear information to distinguish which is which amongst the first search returns. The issue here is that users are simply blindly following the first thing they see rather than making a cognitive decision about where to go. No wonder phishing sites are so successful. The problem is that with kids outside their environment we teach them, "don't talk to strangers" etc, but adults don't educate themselves in the same way or don't know where to look. This is the failure on Google/MS/Yahoo's part.
@Gazzer - Yes, you want to come to this site. You also have enough technological savvy to pick this link out of a few at the top, versus the thousands upon thousands of users that ended up here completely by mistake. I thought the same thing before, about people making active decisions, but as I looked at the list of search results, I realized how clueless I might be had I not been raised with computers. URLs just fade into the distance and other unimportant information is just automatically filtered out by my brain.
@ThompsonPaul - The Google search for "facebook login" should look pretty much the same as it did yesterday.
Hi,
Love Internet memes.Three popular Internet memes that I am going to give a brief mention to is, Tub Girl, Goatse and Two Girls and a Cup. You are more than welcome to do a Google search yourself… it is difficult to find the original videos. In fact, the memes that go around now are actually videos of people’s reaction to watching the videos. These memes used shock value and gross and disgusting images and I have no desire to see the videos but as I said feel free to check them out if you so desire...
What's AOL? Has anyone outside the US ever heard of them or used it?
This article was confusing as hell for me because I had no idea what you were talking about. After actually reading the comment stream on the other page, its fucking hilarious!
So where do I log in?
Great article.
Maybe if Google stopped trying to be everyone else with things like Buzz and Wave they might pay attention to what we all loved them for in the first place.
Just Google.
"I want the old facebook back this shit is wask!"
I'm think too
I am wondering if it is actually a Google problem, though I admit they could do better with their search result list.
Now, is there anyone that everytime he calls a friend calls the operator to be put through instead of dialing his number? I do think it is merely a problem of "young internet", which has to be solved both by better websites and educators (whichever way).
Best regards
Jupe
I think a huge take-away from this incident is that it's not sustainable to keep accommodating people's confusion instead of solving it. If the clued-in few keep the masses clueless on the most basic fundamentals of what's going on, we are not doing them any service.
I think there are points where UI's need to force (or at least nudge) people to understand what's going on. I'm not saying to make it hard, but ideally a "self-explanatory" UI will promote understanding, not just get someone blindly to where they want to go at the moment.
Most people don't need to understand every layer of the OSI model, but they really DO need to know how to recognize the IDENTITY of who they're interacting with online. Right now, URI's are the mechanism for that, and that's hardly Google's fault.
Google seeming to read our minds is cool, but to some extent it's the problem, not the solution. Consider that real human intelligence is not perfectly reliable. That's part of what makes it human. The more human we make artificial intelligence, the more it will be subject to human-like unpredictability.
Imagine you have a little brother with a disability that keeps him from recognizing faces or voices. No matter who he sees or hears, he will not recognize them unless they are wearing clothes that are familiar to him. So, if you put on his mother's clothes, he will have no clue whatsoever that you are not his mom.
What will you do to keep your little brother safe in the world?
Would you start controlling what clothes everyone in the world wears? Perhaps you could get some really rare and unusual clothes for the few people in his life that he needs to trust.
I'm thinking you've either got to
a) teach him a way to compensate for his disability, or
b) don't let him go out alone.
Maybe Google, in a sense, tries to follow option b. But how can we leave that responsibility in Google's hands?
Since the event of Twitter and the challenger Bing who were better in real-time search, Google has favorite real-time content over static content.
Facebook login is static - old stuff
ReadWriteWeb blog post is real-time stuff - thus more important.
people don't even know what a browser is. to them, the internet is google, because it's their jump-off point when they click the "e" on their desktop. they don't use short cuts and don't know that there's an enter button. seriously, the iPad can't come soon enough.
Just playing tourist at the birth site of an Internet meme.
can I please log on to facebook now?
Its really strange to listen of read the word 'Google Failed', really rare one specially for the webmasters.
Well, I'm glad they finally fixed it. You are now down to third place:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yish/4351103186/
But seriously, don't you think it would be better if people actually used their brain to process the text that goes before their eyes?
Google is a machine. It does not discriminate. There are millions of queries where the first (or second, third) is not what you want. And for every such example, there's a percentage of users who act like automatons. I have my little example - on:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=live+coverage+wikimapia
My worthless blog post comes forth:
http://yishaym.wordpress.com/2006/07/22/live-coverage-on-wikimapia/
and that's after I made it private (I switched in back just now).
The thing is, "the number of people searching for live coverage wikimapia" x "percentage of people behaving like automata" is much smaller than the same equation with "facebook login", plus my little blog generally doesn't get that much attention.
So, in short, it's not a bug. It's a feature of dynamic systems. Enjoy.
And now, just to add to the wave of enthusiasm, here's the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=299299777010
Typing the domain name in the URL bar is no better: everyday I have lots of readers who type a domain name close to mine and land on my site!
What's worse they repeat this more than once…
A scary amount of people don't even know what a browser is
http://tech.phreadz.com/x/9G3JA4GF9M/
;0
This is not a failure of Google or developers. This is a failure to read, think and act- a failure of critical thinking. The same people who can't read the results of a search, undertsand what is presented and make a choice are the same people who can't find a book in the library or research a topic. It's the same people who use GPS to drive off a bridge.
GOD DAMNIT I STIL CANTNOT LOG ON FACEBOOK. IM REALLY DELTING MY ACCOUNT OF THIS STILL KEPT HAPPENING TO ME.
@ Ryan:
"I hope we (who create this new world) realize that there aren't many of "us", but a whole bunch of "them" and our success depends ultimately on their success."
@ Michael:
"people don't even know what a browser is. to them, the internet is google, because it's their jump-off point when they click the "e" on their desktop. they don't use short cuts and don't know that there's an enter button. seriously, the iPad can't come soon enough."
That's why I wrote an article before the introduction of the iPad, sayin' that it was the computer "the rest of them" was waiting for!
http://www.micmac.com/2010/01/27/the-rest-of-them/
@ Khürt:
"This is a failure to read, think and act- a failure of critical thinking."
I think it has to do with the fact that "the rest of them" is using computers (or Google!) like they are using a TV, i.e. with brain off!
But the computers we know until now were designed to be used with the brain on…
I'd say _constantly_ on.
@micmac using search instead of typing a domain will become more and more common - it's just easier to type soemthing like "bbc news" into a search field on a phone than it is to type a url. Even on a regular computer, I've even seen people type "google" into the search field in firefox to get to google homepage!
But when can I login to facebook?
I saw the story on the iPhone Facebook Insider site (http://facebook.webappuniverse.com) and I had to laugh--what a great turn of events. People would pay THOUSANDS for that one chance to be #2 on Google.
You ever think that maybe... just maybe... Google allows this misdirection on purpose?
I can see a pimple-faced geek sitting in a data center somewhere, wringing his hands like Dr. No... knyuck-knyuck-knyuck... that'll fix facebook for taking our traffic!
What's facebook?
This behaviour is familiar If you're ever run or watched usability sessions. Users type what they desire into any white box and click on the next most probable clickable-looking-thing that's a candidate for their intentions. Chrome has conflated the search and URL fields to a single box for this reason.
The colour and design differences on readwriteweb.com and facebook.com must deter the majority
Only a minority of those still confused would bother to leave comments.
Also, many would have typed "Facebook" as a single word, without the "Login" as their term - but they would have been successful following the top result.
This story illustrates that a minority of a minority of a minority of 400 million active users is still a large, large number.
Simple solution would have been for FaceBook to have a sponsored link for "facebook login" - that'd keep them at the top (and yes, they'd have to pay Google, but they'd also make their typical users happy!)
No, they've absolutely and necessarily failed. If you don't have the presence of mind to realize _where you are and what page you are currently looking at_, you should not have internet access, if only for your own safety.
"If this many of them can't login to Facebook by typing that into Google and clicking on the first thing they see, it's probably not them that are wrong, it's Google."
This is just so wrong it makes me want to cry. Google is not responsible for wiping the asses of the hordes of sub-literate monotremes WHO CANNOT DISTINGUISH ONE WEBSITE FROM ANOTHER.
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