Google Base notes
Been messing with Google Base.
If I want to add an entry to the Base about myself, how should I go about it? My first thought was to include it in the People Profiles item type, but it turns out to be not for general People Profiles at all - it's all about finding a date. The default attributes for this item type include Sexuality, Marital Status, and Interests. And each entry in this item type has a maximum lifespan of 31 days.
So it's no kind of People Profiles item type at all, it's a find-a-date service. I wish Google wouldn't beat around the bush with all this "We just want to help the world find all its information" rubbish and just come out and say it: "Yuh. We cloned Craigslist. Go crazy, kids!"
Base lacks the "Doh!" obviousness that the original Google home page had. The UI is downright confusing, but then again neither Craigslist, nor eBay (another cloneparent for Base) have particularly simple interfaces. Once you're inside Base, either in search results or your own "Dashboard" for creating new items, finding your way elsewhere is very hard.
There's tags buried in Base - called Labels - but no way to browse tags, or hop from one to another mid-search. It's frustrating.
What Base needs is some really clear contextual help to explain exactly what each element is for. And some much clearer, more honest, labeling of things like "People Profiles" - change the name to "Personals" and be done with it.
Labels: tech
