Tuesday, July 25, 2006

It's like a whole bunch of tubes, see...

The federal government recently paid $65,000 for a report that told them :
1) people use search engines to find things on the net and
2) their website blows.
And to think I could have given them that exact same information for only about $50,000.

The relevant quotes from CanWest :

"Most searching was done through a search engine, felt to be by far the easiest way to find whatever one is looking for," the report's executive summary concluded.
"There was very little spontaneous recall of the Government of Canada Web site."

Really? Even with those pictures of Steve about to snort some kittens?

OK, to be fair, the report was not really about the gov site itself. It only assessed the public's ability to remember vanity URLs and the extent to which they use search engines.
(Ed : Never and lots. Where's my $50K?)

Still, the report did recommend changing the current "gc" suffix to "gov".
Just like, you know, in the States.

So how about www.themapleleafstate.gov? Did you try that one?
Or www.heyyoufrogsisthispotofwaterhotenoughforyayet.gov ?

But to really increase traffic from search engines, I would recommend the Canadian government use something more along the lines of
www.nakedabortionfagsmudwrestlingfetusnazis.gov.ca

Probably need a tinyhurl for that last one.

6 comments:

Andrew said...

The Phantom Observer took a nice look at this study:

http://phantomobserver.com/blog/?p=240

Anonymous said...

Dag nabbit, that 50k could have completed your dream of recreating the history of western civilization in lego across Bowen Island.

Alison said...

Thanks for that link, Andrew.
I read his piece and left him a comment.
Spending $65K+ to have 32 people interviewed to tell them the same thing their own employees in Health have been telling them for years is still a crock, regardless of who authorized it.

Q : Yes it's quite the blow.
And not only that, it now looks like I'm going to have to move the dinosaurs up several million years in order to make them fit in.

scout said...

they need their tubes tied.

good gawd q, don't encourage her! the last thing i want when driving across the island is seeing lego instillations. wait, actually that wouldn't be a bad idea....the 'sanitize our island' people would get upset and maybe move , the bylaw officer would be spinning trying to find them all and too busy to issue tickets

Alison said...

Scout :

Wait...You don't like what I've done with CatesHill? You don't like all the new lego people?

I'm....crushed...

scout said...

i don't have a passport to get into cates hill. dang, this means an evening foray sneaking in while wearing cat burglar clothes. can i see the lego people with infrared glasses on?

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