Google Librarian Central: Search Tip: Specialized Searches. I know I keep going on about this, and probably boring everyone to distraction, but I think it needs to keep being said until Google get to grips with this issue. Which is, of course, about the fact that apparently as far as they're concerned, the only librarians in the world are American. In order to put this into context, the link takes you to a posting on how to use the US government search option, with the assumption that everyone is going to be using the .com version of Google. This is the text of a comment that I've left for this particular entry:
Look, I'm sorry to keep going on about this, and I know that it's probably boring you, because it's boring me, but it needs to continually be said because Google is continually *not getting it*.
Let me explain. Oddly enough I don't get the US Government Search option at the bottom of the Advanced Search Page because I'm using the UK version, and it doesn't have that. Oddly however it does give me the option of searching universities, but they're US universities, not British ones. Could someone, somewhere tell me why that makes any sense at all?
I don't have any problem with Google Librarian Central having a US bias; for those of us not in the US it's something that we're used to. However, this rampant, unthinking American approach is really quite poor. You could at least add in something along the lines of 'obviously for those of you not based in the US this isn't going to be a key issue' or something. It's not hard to do, you know.
You say that you're listening. I'm sorry, but really - you're not. Or at best, you're just listening to people who speak with an American accent, and for a company that tries to have us believe you have a global interest, this is really poor.
I'm not asking for much. I'm just asking that can you, if for no other reason than courtesy, remember that American librarians (wonderful people that they are, and some of my best friends are American librarians) are *not* the only librarians in the world. We have them in Europe, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, the Far East and just about everywhere else too! It would be nice if you'd take that into account once in a while.
Thanks for listening.
Well said Phil! I was similarly annoyed when Google announced that it had launched Patent Search. But it only covers US patents and the free database at that, which does not cover everything. I've already had a couple of conversations with 2 R&D people who think that they can do away with their patents searchers and priced, truly worldwide database. Sigh....
Posted by: Karen Blakeman | February 02, 2007 at 09:37 AM
Dag nabbit! Just because I'm Canadian doesn't mean I'm American.
Well, actually it does . . . but in the Google context "American" does not include "Canadian" or "Mexican" either and that's a fairly populous groups you have excluded in your attempt at inclusion.
Posted by: Ryan Deschamps | February 05, 2007 at 06:19 PM
Ryan - what can I say? I'm sorry if you're offended that I left out Canada etc. In actual fact, Canada was left out because Google does actually reference at least one Canadian librarian in their resources.
So it would be a bit stupid of me to complain to Google that they're ignoring Canadian librarians when they're not, wouldn't it!
Posted by: Phil Bradley | February 06, 2007 at 12:03 PM
You guys do a wonderful job! Keep up the good work!!!e
Posted by: Helga | June 04, 2007 at 02:14 PM