Whenever I hear of a product from Google, the first thing I wonder about is when they plan to retire it. I'd rather patronize alternatives.
Google Baraza
61–70 of 72 posts
Re: Google Baraza
#62"What is Google Baraza?" "I am a member of the Google Baraza team. One of Google’s goals in Africa is to make the internet more locally relevant and bring more people online. One of the challenges of the internet in Africa is that there is a lack of local content online. At Google, we find that users search for information about local businesses, entertainment, health, etc but often don’t find it because the informat…
So, minus all the lofty goals, this is Google Answers for Africa. I'd be interested to know what Q&A services Africans already use.
Also notably, the answer linked is from October 2010, so this has been in use for a while.
Re: Google Baraza
#63"What is Google Baraza?" "I am a member of the Google Baraza team. One of Google’s goals in Africa is to make the internet more locally relevant and bring more people online. One of the challenges of the internet in Africa is that there is a lack of local content online. At Google, we find that users search for information about local businesses, entertainment, health, etc but often don’t find it because the informat…
Why should Africans use this instead of existing Q/A sites like Quora?
I don't understand why Quora seems to be a standard to some. It hides it's answers behind a registration wall and ask that you give it access to your Facebook profile on registration.
It's a creepy website from my perspective.
Re: Google Baraza
#64I like the one that asks "Why Google collaborate with the NSA?"
The one response is "you crazy".
Re: Google Baraza
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree, it would be good to see Google setting the trend here by going HTTPS everywhere. Personally I think the next website I create will be all-HTTPS. The main reasons I encounter for not going HTTPS everywhere are: 1) Possible negative effect on search engine ranking during transition period. 2) 3rd party content from analytics tools and advert networks not supporting HTTPS. 3) Slower initial page load over mobil…
Nr. 3 is very problematic for satellite connections, which have extremely high latency, making HTTPS websites unusable. I guess that is why Google went with plain HTTP in Africa.
This isn't only a consideration for Africa- I am in rural Missouri, USA, and I am stuck with a satellite connection. HTTPS sites are several times slower than their HTTP siblings. The problem, as I understand it, is that my service provider can't compress the pages before sending them over the satellite link.
Re: Google Baraza
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why should Africans use this instead of existing Q/A sites like Quora?
I don't understand why Quora seems to be a standard to some. It hides it's answers behind a registration wall and ask that you give it access to your Facebook profile on registration. It's a creepy website from my perspective.
Not to mention quietly setting up a public profile page in your name that starts showing up among top results when people search for you. Creepy is right.
Re: Google Baraza
#67also → http://otvety.google.ru
Re: Google Baraza
#68I wonder why they chose not to allow commenting on questions (possible on Quora or Stack Exchange).
Allowing comments could help improve existing answers, but I guess it would add more noise.
Re: Google Baraza
#69Oh, Oh... time-consuming website!
Re: Google Baraza
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a good question. At one point is google "impartial" search engine or when does it become a funnel to their own services? You can see it started to happen with the ITA flight software acquisition a few years back ( http://www.google.com/press/ita/ ) - now google flights now beat out every booking engine for any flight query.
I doubt that Google will ruin the integrity of their search results because they want to push Baraza. They do have widgets such as Google Flights pop up when it is clear the user if looking for airline tickets but that's not an indication that Google funnels all their own services for the heck of it. First of all, the widgets such as Flights and People Bios are not in the actual search results, but appear as separate…
Their flight widget is the second thing in the search results (right under the ads) and above any actual results. That alone - says they're prioritizing the money-making options.