Google Toolbar is considered Scumware by Users
Autolink and what average users really think!
I started a thread AutoLink and the User with the aim of seeing, if we as a community could see any beneficial use of the AutoLink functionality in Google's new toolbar for the end user?
As the thread grew it became apparent that it is very hard to stop thinking as website operators and to think purely as ordinary web users. UKgimp made an excellent post that summed things up saying.
Representative we are not. Cut and dry.
Ask/show your granny/mother etc see what they say
Because I knew I had the perfect opportunity coming up I proposed I ask some people I consider average web users what they thought.
Here is what happened along with the results and my interpretation of them.
Follow the title link for the full post.
I am not a scientist but have tried to stay as objective as I can.
Interview Subjects
N.B. All subjects are from the UK
#1
- Age:67
- Sex:Female
- Occupation:Housewife
- Computer Knowledge:Nil.Never used a computer, nor does she wish to.
#2
- Age:65
- Sex:Male
- Occupation:Retired engineer
- Computer Knowledge:Medium. Other than CAD and internal email functions for a major international car manufacturer, had never used a computer until 3 years ago when home PC was purchased. Checks email twice weekly & occasionally searches for research reasons that lead to an offline purchase. Has not yet made an online purchase.
#3
- Age:27
- Sex:Female
- Occupation:Bank worker
- Computer Knowledge: Medium - High.Uses a computer extensively both at work and in her social time. Regularly makes purchases online. She does not run or participate on any websites.
#4
- Age:45
- Sex:Male
- Occupation:Media related
- Computer Knowledge: High.Extensive use at work and in social life. Most purchases are made online rather than in bricks and mortar shops.
#5
- Age:43
- Sex:Female
- Occupation:Entertainment Related
- Computer Knowledge:High. Extensive use at work and in social life. Most purchases are made online rather than in bricks and mortar shops.
#6
- Age:68
- Sex:Male
- Occupation:Semi Retired Company Director
- Computer Knowledge:Medium - High.Uses spreadsheets, word processing applications and email regularly. Uses the web purely for financial (Social and work) related reasons daily.
#7
- Age:65
- Sex:Female
- Occupation:Housewife
- Computer Knowledge:Low.Never regularly used a computer, would like to learn and can see benefits from using the web.
#8
- Age:21
- Sex:Female
- Occupation:Health care related
- Computer Knowledge:Medium High - High. Regularly uses all Office applications and is an avid user of the web in her social time.
#9
- Age:34
- Occupation:Engineer
- Computer Knowledge:Low - Medium. Uses one when "in the office" though not whilst "on the road" or at home.
#10
- Age:34
- Sex:Female
- Occupation:Child care assistant
- Computer Knowledge: Medium. Uses computer at work for administration as well as at home for surfing the web. Makes some purchases online.
#11
- Age:26
- Sex:Male
- Occupation:Chef
- Computer Knowledge:Medium - High. Uses computers extensively at work and surfs at home. Runs a cooking blog
#12
- Age:23
- Sex:Female
- Occupation:Health Care Related
- Computer Knowledge: Medium - High. Uses computers extensively at work and surfs regularly at home as well as assisting in running a section of the corporate website
The test was delivered on Laptop that accessed 3 remote computers via LogmeIn that had been set up as follows.
All 3 PCs had the Windows XP operating with all updates installed.
PC 1 was left as standard except changing the homepage to about:blank
PC 2 had Google Toolbar Version 3 installed and homepage changed to about:blank
PC 3 had Ezula installed and homepage changed to about:blank
I set some tasks for each of the subjects to undertake
- Find a web page that is relevant to your favourite book
- Find a review of your favourite book
- Find out who publishes your favourite book
- Find the homepage of the publisher
- Tell me the ISBN of your favourite book
- Simulate purchasing your favourite book, but stop before checkout
All the subjects undertook these tasks on all 3 machines in order. IE. PC1, PC2, PC3 with no intervention nor comments from me, other than when detailed below.
PC1 - Standard XP install
- 8 of the subjects started their quest at http://www.google.com
- 2 of the subjects started their quest at http://www.google.co.uk
- 1 of the subjects started their quest at http://www.yahoo.co.uk
- 1 of the subjects started their quest at http://www.yahoo.com
All of the subjects were able to find relevant information and succesfully complete the 1st 3 tasks with information provided by their search. The shortest path taken was 1 click from search to fulfill the individual tasks and the longest was 4 clicks.
Task 4, was slightly tricker and 3 people took more than 2 searches to find the publishers homepage, but all subjects ultimately found the right page.
Task 5, was accomplished simply and all subjects found the information within the SERP itself and did not have to click from the results page to get the information.
Task 6, was spread between users directly entering vendors URLs and searching for a vendor.
- 6 people entered http://www.amazon.co.uk and searched for the book from there
- 3 people entered http://www.amazon.com and searched for the book from there.
- 1 person searched for W H Smith, followed the top result and searched from there
- 1 person searched for "buy book name" and followed the top result. It was an affiliate page redirecting to Amazon
- 1 person went directly to the publishers site and initiated the purchase from there.
PC2 - Google Toolbar
The subjects were told by me of the existance of the toolbar and that it was designed to enhance the surfing experience.
- 5 of the subjects used the same queries as they entered previously but rather than manually entering their search engine into the address bar they preferred to use the toolbar
- 4 of the subjects did exactly as they did previously and bypassed the toolbar
- 1 of the subjects changed their preferred engine from http://www.google.co.uk to http://www.ask.com
- 1 of the subjects changed their preferred engine from http://www.google.com to http://www.google.co.uk
- 1 of the subjects changed their preferred engine from http://www.yahoo.com to http://www.msn.com
All subjects were able to find relevant information and succesfully complete the 1st 3 tasks but all of them noticed that the toolbar was highlighted and 7 of them clicked on the button taking them to Amazon which gave information to deliver tasks 1 to 3, as well as tasks 5 & 6.
The information from the Amazon page, gave them the name of the Publisher, which enabled the search (via the same method they had used previously) which led to the correct Publishers home page.
The other 5 subjects went through the same route as they had used on PC1
PC3 - Ezula TopText
The subjects were told by me of the existance of the Ezula application (The term scumware or other related terminology was not used) and that it is designed to enhance the surfing experience.
- 10 of the subjects used the same queries and same search engines as they entered on PC1 though 1 said that (s)he missed the ability to search from the toolbar.
- 2 people changed from the http://www.google.com they chose on PC1 and used http://www.google.co.uk
All of the subjects were able to find the information they were looking for for all the tasks but all of them noticed the new links and clicked on them. None of the found the information to their liking and 2 people ended up on pages they did not like and would not normally surf to.
All the subjects purchased their book from the same supplier, Amazon. 9 people going to http://www.amazon.co.uk and 3 people going to http://www.amazon.com
Once the tests were complete I said the following.
"The Google toolbar is an application that changes the content of a page from that which a website owner has set it to be.", I then asked, "Do you think the GTB is an asset?"
All users said," yes."
I then said, "The Ezula application is an application that changes the content of a page from that which a website owner has set it to be." I then asked, "Do you think it is an asset?"
3 users said, "Yes" but other 9 said, "No" with 4 people showing a strong dislike for it.
I then asked, "Do you believe that Ezula and GTB offer similar functionality, although from different companies?"
All 12 subjects said, "Yes"
I then asked, "Software that adapts websites for monetary gain is often thought of as Scumware" I then continued by saying` that, "the CEO of Amazon is a shareholder in Google, and although Google state they receive no income from the links they put on web pages, do you believe that GTB is scumware or not?"
All 12 subjects said that GTB is scumware.
I then said.
"Ezula earns income for each of the added links that you click on"
All 12 subjects said that Ezula is scumware
I asked "Does this change your perception of Google as a company?"
9 subjects said, "No"
3 subjects said, "Yes"
When I asked further questions it transpired that 6 of the 9 that expressed a view of "no change in Google's perception" was based on Google being a commercial organisation and the term "business is business" was used to explain this.
The same view was given for Ezula and their business practices.
Finally I asked that as a web user do you feel more inclined or less inclined to search at Google now that you are aware of the toolbar functionality and its uses.
- 6 people said less inclined
- 2 people said they would not changed from Yahoo
- 1 person said they are more inclined
- 1 person said they are more likely to change to Ask Jeeves
- 1 person said they would use Google.co.uk and not .com now
- 1 person said they would stop using the internet and just go to the library instead!
The over riding factor that I believe this study shows is that Users believe that GTBv3 is Scumware and it will harm Google Inc reputation and income streams by continuing to develop or deploy this.
Fascinating -
so far! That's a pretty good group spread overall.... The rest should be definitely interesting.
Looking good
Look forward to the results (or maybe I should be frightened? heh)
Great results
Interesting that they thought it was fine until they saw the connection between googles application and a scumware app. Now all that needs to happen is have Yahoo!, Ask or Microsoft take out full page ads using your line of thinking ;O)
Fascinating results
As an ex-marketing man I was fascinated by your results.
You have in effect been running a focus group, which is what any brand marketing organistion from Proctor and Gamble to the British Labour Party do when they check out ideas.
Such organisations would run a number of such groups to eliminate any bias in recruiting, but I wouyld think you have come up with something reasonably valid.
Probably the only thing that Google Market Research people may well have "re-phrased" would have been the question about "scumware". A term that is fairly heavily derogatory to the average person, and the link to Google at this point may be a little too harsh.
I don't know how different a final answer you would have got if this question had been "softer".
But it beats me why G could not, or have not run their own focus groups. Perhaps any Google MR people reading this may like to send you a donation. It certainly gives them an idea for further focus groups.
chrisgarrett posted whilst I was composing, and I see has the same thought
Very interesting
I've got a question about this part:
What was it about the Google Toolbar that set it apart from Ezula in the first two questions for the 9 who saw one as an asset and the other not? I ask because their responses to the questions that followed lumped the two together, so I wonder how those who perceived them differently expressed that difference.
GTB has the name Google on it
GTB has the name Google on it, of which they are familiar and Ezula is a name they have never heard of as well as the differences in the links.
Some of the Ezula links weren't exactly "on topic" whereas the GTB links were on topic.
Also interesting
I found it confirm that ordinary non-webmaster members of the public do use Ask and that the MSN marketing message has not gotten through enough yet.
Cornwall, You may well be
Cornwall,
You may well be right how G's team wouldn't like the word scumware used but I do think it was a fair use of the word in the context it was used. Specifically towards how Ezula is considered as such and how they earn their money.
As to donations. I'll happily accept them from anyone. I am pretty syre that the guy's n gal's at G have a few more noughts after their net worth than I do lol !
On a personal level ChrisG, I do hope that YMA run an ad campaign using that line of thought
How long before
How long before adaware, spybot, norton et al consider worthy of removing?
They already target the lowliest of cookies and aff. links, this should be right up their alley.
Really?
How so?
I took away the overriding factor to be this:
I'm not sure why, because I'm not all that into logic and proofs and stuff, but something doesn't seem right with your conclusion to me. Like you made some giant leap to get to it.
Perhaps someone more experienced in debating and all that can give us their thoughts...maybe it's just me, but your conclusion makes me totally uncomfortable and just doesn't seem to be accurate.
nice find :-)
.. although you did introduce bias yourself by using the term "scumware". For market research of any kind this is a strict no-no - avoid positively or negatively laden expressions at all costs. You can't do this and then expect to get an unbiased answer.
You actually did the same when suggesting that the products were "designed to enhance the surfing experience". But, this (positive emotion seeding) is actually a technique that you can use when dealing with controversial subjects - you just need to interpret the answers in the light of this. And, you did the right thing in saying this about both of them.
Rather than this:
... you should have asked a sequence of questions like, say:
So, i personally wouldn't put too much weight on the answers given after this question:
Which, by itself, is a significant find.
---
Added:
I'm educated in Market Research at a high level and have been working with stuff like this for several years, so view the above in this light. It probably sounds a lot harder than it is intended. If so, that's only because i'm a bit pedantic in these matters, i know that very well, and it's not your fault.
You actually did do a good job here, i really mean that :-)
I may well have chosen better
I may well have chosen better questions but as I said at the start I am no scientist in this area and tried to make it as clear and transparent as I could.
I'm definately learning and when (not if) I do a similar study again I'll take on board what you've all taught me and do my utmost to make it a more useful test.
There are still some interesting stats there :)
Its a good study
Jason,
Whenever Market Research is done by a big company someone from "another department" will always tell you the flaws in it. God knows, I have been there myself many times.
The only way you get round those flaws is having massive studies, with massive costs. Then do another massive study to iron out the flaws that slip in regardless. And I don't think you are in the market to do that :-)
To me the point is that it shows people here what goes on in a focus group, you never set out for it to be "statictically sound". G$ should have run (or should be running) such large focus group tests. I suspect part of their problem with it is that they have moved very quickly from a small company to a massive one, taking the culture of the small company decision making process with them (that is not doing Market Research, and relying on "gut feel")
Having been bored watching....
Focus groups for a number of years, Claus' points are not only valid but good.
So - it's simple, Jason has done his survey - Claus the door is now open for your one!
I am sure Nick will be happy if you call it the "(The 2nd) Offical ThreadWatch Google Toolbar Survey" and have trackbacks all over the web and major press coverage.
Jason "no missed opportunities" D
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb216558.htm
heheh.....