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Google Starts Educating The Masses About Web Browsers

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:04:47 +0000

You might remember the survey that Google conducted in New York a while back asking random people passing by what a web browser is. It was not that surprising, at least for tech savvy users who have to carefully word their explanations whenever they to tech support, that most who were asked did not know what a web browser was. Most who were able to answer the question defined a web browser as a website or search engine.

Google decided that it was time to educate the masses about web browsers. The first step was the production of a one minute video that explains in plain English what a web browser is and is not. Most tech savvy users would probably call the video web browsers for dummies or something like that.

The video begins with the statement that the web browser is the most important software on computer systems. That’s definitely a bold statement and in most cases not likely to be true. Take a look at the rest of the video to see how they explain web browsers.

Google has also created the website What Browser which contains textual information about web browsers. Not only about Google Chrome but also Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer. Some pages of the website contain tips that might be useful for users who came there not knowing what a web browser is while the graphs, charts and web benchmark section is probably not suited at all for a website like this. The website does offer direct links to the homepages of the five web browser developers which is probably the most useful part of it right now.

What Is A Browser

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:04:59 +0000

When I worked in tech support I really had to be careful about words. Things like web browsers, the operating system’s name or even keys on the keyboard might feel natural to experienced computer users but they did confuse the hell out of the average user. Many did not know what the web browser was, could not say the name or version of their operating system or find the enter key on their keyboard. It was highly frustrating but one gets used to “baby-talking” them into revealing the information needed to do the job.

It was a funny time back then especially considering that these inexperienced users where doing some highly sensitive stuff on the Internet including Internet banking.

Google, the makers of the Google Browser, went to Time Square, New York to find out the answer to the question “What is a browser”. They asked 50 random people on the street and the results reminded me of the time I worked in tech support.

Here are some top answers:

A search engine
A website that you can search on
A browser is when you know what you are looking for and a search engine is when you search something
A way to get on

Many tech users have a hard time adjusting to this. Not that they have to at all times as it depends on their audience. A room full of tech savvy users will use terms like browsers, network, internet all the time. Many non-tech savvy people just use. They do not care how it is called or what else you can do with it. They simply want to perform the two or three basic tasks that they want to do with a computer and that’s it.

What’s your experience?