The problem's with the browser interface, not the users
I'm glad there are quite a few commenters saying kinda "that's just what normal people are like". But ISTM a shame there are no few of you expressing surprise, and contempt, for such normal people.
When we use something new and potentially difficult, we find a way to make it work that's reliable and rememberable and non-scary, and we continue to use it.
Most browsers nowadays have two little boxes to type into, up there at the top:
- In one of them, you can type eg "Facebook" and a link to it will appear.
- In the other one, you can't do that - plus, it repeatedly gets filled up with technogibberish that you yourself did not type and can't possibly understand (things like "http://" and "home.php?sk=lf" - indeed, often *completely* new gibberish entirely replaces whatever you typed). A normal user may have no idea whether it's safe just to delete this computer-generated gibberish or whether it might be important to leave it alone.
So, they stick with the box that works, that's "theirs", that's safe.
Those of you expressing surprise and contempt at how normal people are - I do hope you take steps to avoid any product design, or UX design or interface design, and indeed avoid being involved in any way in how software aimed at normal people works. I know you think you can do it (how hard can it be, after all, for a brainbox like yourself?), but your surprise and contempt says otherwise. (There's always Yet Another Compiler Compiler, which I'm sure you'd be great at.)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
