Does Google Need An Ombudsman?
from the couldn't-hurt... dept
Lauren Weinstein has an interesting discussion going on his blog, noting a series of recent incidents where Google has done a spectacularly poor job in communicating with the public -- something I've been critical of the company about, as well. The company can be notoriously secretive at times, even when being a lot more transparent would help. Even worse, the company is quite difficult to contact on many issues, unless you happen to know people there already. Its response times, if you go through the "official channels," are absolutely ridiculous (if they respond at all). Weinstein's suggestion, then, is that Google should set up a small team to play an ombudsman role -- basically acting as the public's "representative" within the company. This wouldn't be a "customer support" role (which is often focused on fixing problems directly) as much as a helping hand within the company. The team could take up issues sent in by the public, find the proper folks within the company and get a real response. While the company may fear that such a group would be overrun by complaints, you would think that it could pretty quickly classify the incoming requests into real issues vs. bogus ones, and concentrate on the real issues. Having such a group could certainly help ease the growing view that Google is something of a monolithic entity that walls itself off from the public that uses it.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: customer service, ombudsman
Companies: google
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
The Easy Way
Customer Service:
"We're not happy until you're not happy."
(from Despair.com)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Google provides excellent documentation for the XML format, but then doesn't tell you what to do with it. Do you upload it somewhere? Do you put it somewhere crawlable on your site?
I've found other people on the net with the same issue. I've tried to contact Google, but I haven't received a response in months. So, Google provides documentation for a new feature, but doesn't give you the essential information on how to use it, and then using the email they give you to contact them about that feature doesn't lead anywhere.
Google needs help. The "ombudsman" idea is not a particularly good one, but they need something.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's a Conspiracy!
A little more on topic: it couldn't hurt their image to be somewhat reachable. I think those who feel that such a team would be overrun with complaints aren't looking at the situation realistically. I mean obviously they'll be overrun with complaints, but you certainly don't have to respond to them. There's no obligation to respond to the BS, so it seems like a pretty simple solution to ignore it and focus on real issues.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
i agree
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Google Labels "Update" a bust
For example, I've gotta tell you I am not loving the recent Labels update. I use a LOT of labels, and every time I try to access the labels panel now, it pops off before I can scroll down to the label I want. . .and usually "Picks" a label for me and assigns it before it pops off. . .but who do I contact? It's easier to blog than it is to simply send a note to the webmaster. Google is going the way of most companies, getting customers involved in long,layered, exasperating searches for a direct customer service contact.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]