Technically Ignorant

I have a few websites I visit daily...sometimes habitually on a daily basis. Cuteoverload, Flickr, Fark, and TechCrunch, to name a few. I enjoyed TechCrunch's myriad of posts on the technical shortcomings of Google within a month-long time span. Not because I don't like Google, but because I am a believer of being humble, modest and humility sometimes being the great equalizer. Yesterday's post about Walmart illustrated another example of a big company being humbled when they launched their new, video download service and failed to do simple QA on browser compatibility. Here is a screenshot from my visit to walmart last night:

Either Walmart has a twisted idea of how to get publicity in an already overly-congested online video market, or they have the WORST QA ever. Are you telling me that no one at Walmart, whether in QA or not, is running Firefox? Come on, Walmart. You may be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even my 10 year old cousin would know to check browser compatibility. Geesh.

Then I read today that Google can't get simple map directions correct. They indicate a 10.4 km trip (that's 6.46 miles for the rest of us that have no frame of reference for kilometers, or any metric unit of measurement for that matter) for a (what should be) very short journey from a hotel to Google's Sydney headquarters--which happens to be across the damn street. Do the math, folks, and keep it simple, stupid.

"It's on the list."