Amusing Comment Thread(readwriteweb.com)
readwriteweb.com
Amusing Comment Thread
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_wants_to_be_your_one_true_login.php#comments
66 comments
"I'm convinced that some people approach the internet like an angry driver gripping the wheel without any sense of reality. Things like this remind me who we're often designing for and has to be done to make our work usable."
Now you got me thinking; the intersection of people who use the Internet and people who drive is a pretty large set.
Looking at that thread, I may never go on the road again.
Now you got me thinking; the intersection of people who use the Internet and people who drive is a pretty large set.
Looking at that thread, I may never go on the road again.
On the one hand I do think that there is a long way to go in improving the usability of computer applications, and that "computer illiteracy" is to some extent merely a symptom of the fact that user interfaces aren't good enough yet.
On the other hand it would not shock me at all to learn that many of the confused commenters in this case are not just "computer illiterate", but illiterate sensu stricto, unable to (for example) parse the front page of a newspaper. Of course this is not to say that they can't learn - but user interface design can only go so far; at some point education is necessary.
On the other hand it would not shock me at all to learn that many of the confused commenters in this case are not just "computer illiterate", but illiterate sensu stricto, unable to (for example) parse the front page of a newspaper. Of course this is not to say that they can't learn - but user interface design can only go so far; at some point education is necessary.
Not just education, but actually _wanting_ to learn. This is what bothers me about the position that computers need to be made easier because people just want to get their work done, they don't want to use computers. Well, tough, you have to learn at least something about a tool in order to be effective at it, otherwise, you're going to have problems. So while it's good to work towards a usable interface that is straight forward, easy to use, doesn't get in the user's way and is easy to understand, there is a limit beyond which you have diminishing returns.
A favorite quote:
"Especially in Silicon Valley, where it's easy for entrepreneurs to isolate themselves in circles with like-minded techies and fellow entrepreneurs, I feel that a huge amount of startup CEOs and designers... make product decisions that appeal to their own interaction behaviour with such applications or what they think their friends will find cool.
"Building for geeks makes for great customer immersion if you're building something like (the wonderfully useful) GitHub, but that same process doesn't work so hot if you're building a site for middle-aged moms."
via http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2009/09/design-for-startup...
"Especially in Silicon Valley, where it's easy for entrepreneurs to isolate themselves in circles with like-minded techies and fellow entrepreneurs, I feel that a huge amount of startup CEOs and designers... make product decisions that appeal to their own interaction behaviour with such applications or what they think their friends will find cool.
"Building for geeks makes for great customer immersion if you're building something like (the wonderfully useful) GitHub, but that same process doesn't work so hot if you're building a site for middle-aged moms."
via http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2009/09/design-for-startup...
> something is wrong.
Yes, something is wrong, but in this case I wouldn't blame the website.
Yes, something is wrong, but in this case I wouldn't blame the website.
It's always good for us designers to get a reminder of the computer skills of the general public. People do not read: headers, urls, titles, or much of anything for that matter.
I WANT TO TAKE GOOGLES OFF OF MY HOME PAGE: http://okcancel.com/archives/link/2004/09/google-answers-hci...
This is even better: http://cancelgoogle.com/
> somebody put google on my computer and I do not want it. how do I remove it.frank cancilla 586-757-5155
Oh wow, thats even worse then the RWW thread.
Oh wow, thats even worse then the RWW thread.
Funny. But can you explain how all those people ended up there? It's not like that's the first hit on Google/Bing, or?
We've determined it's people searching for "facebook login" on Google, according to our traffic stats.
Author Mike Melanson, Inadvertent SEO Superstar
Author Mike Melanson, Inadvertent SEO Superstar
And it's not a new phenomenon[1], but it might be the first time it's backfired.
[1] http://www.google.com/trends?q=facebook%2C+facebook+login
[1] http://www.google.com/trends?q=facebook%2C+facebook+login
Backfired... are you kidding? This is comedy gold! ;)
[deleted]
RWW Writer here: these people are all coming to our site by searching Google for "facebook login"
Very sad, but I guess it's really a good reminder that we live in a bubble. For a lot of people, the Internet is magic and they don't know what to do when something changes.
Very sad, but I guess it's really a good reminder that we live in a bubble. For a lot of people, the Internet is magic and they don't know what to do when something changes.
I think there must be some keyword combination containing the words "facebook" and "login" that these people are putting into google to get to Facebook. That's how a lot of people seem to surf these days; if you want to go somewhere, type into the magical Google box.
edit: the best I can find is "facebook true login", I bet there's another combo that RWW is listing first for.
edit: the best I can find is "facebook true login", I bet there's another combo that RWW is listing first for.
True. I've seen it way to many times - instead of just typing facebook.com (no http or www required!) they just type "facebook" in Google search in Firefox
It shows up as a "News Result" above the actual web links. http://www.google.com/search?q=facebook+login
That seems like a flaw in Google, to be honest. Surely Facebook.com must be one of the very highest pageranks possible.
So it's the preferential treatment Google gives to "news results" that moved this page to the top.
But how many people who google "facebook" are looking for anything other than facebook.com? I know that people like us it seems no one would logically go to the site that way, but those of us who watch people use the web know better.
So this seems like a case of Google returning results on what it imagines people want rather than what I'm willing to bet the statistics overwhelmingly indicate people want.
Interesting.
So it's the preferential treatment Google gives to "news results" that moved this page to the top.
But how many people who google "facebook" are looking for anything other than facebook.com? I know that people like us it seems no one would logically go to the site that way, but those of us who watch people use the web know better.
So this seems like a case of Google returning results on what it imagines people want rather than what I'm willing to bet the statistics overwhelmingly indicate people want.
Interesting.
Personally, if I type "facebook" into Google I am probably not looking for Facebook itself. I'm aware, though, that that probably puts me in a small minority.
[deleted]
The page has been updated:
"Dear visitors from Google. This site is not Facebook. This is a website called ReadWriteWeb that reports on news about Facebook and other Internet services. You can however click here to become a Fan of ReadWriteWeb on Facebook, to receive our updates and learn more about the Internet. To access Facebook, please type "facebook.com" into your browser address bar or type "facebook" into Google and click on the first result."
"Dear visitors from Google. This site is not Facebook. This is a website called ReadWriteWeb that reports on news about Facebook and other Internet services. You can however click here to become a Fan of ReadWriteWeb on Facebook, to receive our updates and learn more about the Internet. To access Facebook, please type "facebook.com" into your browser address bar or type "facebook" into Google and click on the first result."
We also just added a link directly to Facebook.com. I'm not sure how some of these people had the wherewithal to sign up for Facebook accounts in the first place.
Right now in a parallel universe, ReadWriteWeb users are trying desperately to log in through some website called Facebook...
This looks oddly familiar.... That's it - YouTube comments.
Beat me to it. That is precisely what it reminded me of. Most comments ever does not equal best comment thread ever. Of course, by the end of it, I'm pretty sure people were just trolling.
So far I've yet to see a post consisting only of a racial slur in caps repeated a dozen times, so I'd say RWW is still ahead. For a little while.
although adding their fb profile pic to all of their comments might take away the edge of anonymity.
No wonder Facebook support never responds
These are people who installed IE from a disk their ISP gave them. Their homepage is comcast.net or something similar. And that homepage must have featured a headline for several hours that linked to this article. I bet the headline was truncated to "Facebook Log-in..." or something. I'm just waiting for my mom to call to ask what's wrong with Facebook.
I have a pretty popular Facebook app. Since the redesign I've been flooded with complaint emails: "Bring back the old Facebook!!!!", "Why did you change it your !@#*&@#ing idiot?!", etc.
Pretty funny.
Pretty funny.
Do you forward those to Facebook?
That looks like a task an automated filter could do.
That looks like a task an automated filter could do.
Oh man, that was entertaining. They're all old people judging by their profile pics.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Myra-Cooper/100000171960096
This was the first profile I clicked on. I am speechless.
This was the first profile I clicked on. I am speechless.
Oh come on guys don't be mean!
To post a comment the first option you can select is "Optional: Sign in with Facebook" which opens a Facebook login window. Which is why most of those commenters had that [f] in their comments.
So perhaps they thought they were somehow logging into Facebook but while they were really doing some kind of remote authentication.
So perhaps they thought they were somehow logging into Facebook but while they were really doing some kind of remote authentication.
This comment thread makes me realize why phishing is so prevalent.
To keep the entertainment going, lets all do our part and promote the article's link up in google's search results for 'facebook' and 'facebook login' :)
I'm really trying to give the commenters the benefit of the doubt. In their defense, Facebook was gradually rolling out a new design that its users seem to despise. That, combined with a usage spike from massive snowstorms (school/work closings, closed roads), explains some of the desperation. I hope.
This is also exposes a massive downside to implementing Facebook connect.
This is also exposes a massive downside to implementing Facebook connect.
My favorite: "The new facebook is ok" ... like Facebook turning into RWW isn't all bad.
(lifted from one of the sane comments)
(lifted from one of the sane comments)
I blame Google for this, not the users. Google knows a large portion of its users use the "search" box for navigation. They should do a better job of accommodating that use case. It should be fairly easy to tell that a search for "facebook login" is likely a navigation query, and display a huge "Login to Facebook" button at the top.
it seems like what is happening is they are typing, "facebook login" into google, then they click the first link, which is "news results for facebook login", the first link on that page is the RWW article.
[deleted]
So many computer illiterate people in one comment thread :) And they all read readwriteweb.com!
...and we thought our readers were so intellectual. ;)
My wife is a theoretical physicist and she also types the names of sites into the search bar to get to them. The concept of a URL is so orthogonal to her reality that it just hasn't registered yet.
Not that I'm saying those commenters are theoretical physicists, but ... the bubble theory is a pretty strong one.
Not that I'm saying those commenters are theoretical physicists, but ... the bubble theory is a pretty strong one.
interestingly enough, some of them seem to like this "new facebook" :D
wow!!, they sound like grumpy prisoners who want into the rec room.
Everybody except one guy that said "Looking good". In all seriousness I feel bad for them.
Is this chatroulette community version?
[deleted]
Flagged.
RWW is really pushing against HN, huh? First they tried to get high-karma members of the site to link to them (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1103021). Now, they are posting themselves really cheap links, to things that really don't matter.
RWW is really pushing against HN, huh? First they tried to get high-karma members of the site to link to them (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1103021). Now, they are posting themselves really cheap links, to things that really don't matter.
Example of why phishing will remain an attractive lucrative opportunity?
Really? Down to -2 when I post this. I would like to know what is so offensive about my comment.
I work at RWW, and I just thought the thread was too funny to not share. Sorry your comment got voted down =/
Also, about the earlier "incident," we've discussed it internally and with the HN dude who was involved, and it's sorted. Our writer didn't know she was crossing a line.
Ultimately, we like the interaction here, and we try to post stuff on HN that the developer/startup community might find interesting, amusing, and informative.
Also, about the earlier "incident," we've discussed it internally and with the HN dude who was involved, and it's sorted. Our writer didn't know she was crossing a line.
Ultimately, we like the interaction here, and we try to post stuff on HN that the developer/startup community might find interesting, amusing, and informative.
I'm convinced that some people approach the internet like an angry driver gripping the wheel without any sense of reality. Things like this remind me who we're often designing for and has to be done to make our work usable.
If > 50 people can arrive at a page, completely disregard the logo and read not a single word in the body BUT still find the comment form, something is wrong.
People are stupid. They are also our customers.