Google is at it once again, trying to gather more information about how we use our devices in conjunction with Google’s products such as Drive, Hangouts, Gmail and more. But instead of gathering data through complex algorithms baked into their products Google is going the grassroots route for this round of data collection… ready for this? Google researchers are coming out of wonderland to actually speak to you face to face. Real human interaction — it’s bad I know.
Google will be visiting a handful of cities over the next six weeks starting with New York and moving on through America. The Google van will stop at Chapel Hill, NC from March 14th to the 18. Next stop from there is Clemson, SC from March 21st to the 22nd. Atlanta, GA March 23rd to the 25th, Boulder, CO from April 4th to the 8th, Salt Lake City, UT from April 11th to the 15th, Reno, NV from April 18th to the 20th, and ending in South Lake Tahoe, CA from April 21st to the 22nd.
“We are trying to understand the whole end-to-end experience, which is why we are trying to get out to more locations and see more people so we can gather more context,” Google researcher Laura Granka said in an interview with the Associated Press. For six weeks, a team from the Silicon Valley-based firm will be traveling across the country to get feedback, straight from their users’ mouths. Sure, they could do it via online surveys or all their complex tracking technology, but for this endeavor, Google is going old school. It’s market research with a convenient side of marketing.
If all goes well, Google will continue to send out more research teams across the U.S. and possibly even international to see how others are using Google services.
If you see Google in your town and are comfortable giving them even more data on you and your habits, you might stop by and participate for a chance to get some Google swag or a gift card. So, the question is, what are your thoughts about Google asking you a few questions on how you use their services? Let us know by leaving your comments down below, or on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.
[button link=”http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/google-van-road-trip/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Digital Trends[/button]
