Am I the only person who has ever wondered why? Am I the only person who has ever asked?

 

I know that Google has an office in Taipei. It's in the 101 building and I can't get in wthout an invitation. I missed the luncheon where their marketing person gave a talk to the European Chamber of Commerce, so I don't have an easy way to bring this to the attention of anyone who can talk about it - but surely it's important?

 

The simple answer is that the original local search engine was kimo.com.tw, which was then bought by Yahoo and inertia has done the rest. But if Google is trying to do anything about this then why are they not more widely-used?

 

I think the answer lies with something more fundamental. It has to do with a very big cultural difference that impacts the way people in Taiwan think about information.

 

Some time ago I read a report (which I can't relocate) on the web somewhere about an experiment done involving western and Asian students. Briefly, all the students were shown a picture for a short time, and then asked a series of questions about it. The western students were able to answer most of the questions about the 'main idea' of the picture - the object in the centre - but not about the stuff around it. The Asian students noticed less detail about the main idea, and more about the other stuff on the periphery. The conclusion was that Asian people generally tend to see information in context, and look for context, whereas westerners tend to focus on one thing.

 

I refer to it as the 'main idea' because that's a concept my adult students never seem to grasp easily when I'm teaching them to write reports. They really find it hard to get to the point, especially at the beginning of the report. They have to tell the story first, give the context in which the main idea can safely exist.

 

So what does this have to do with Google?

 

Well, it explains why most Taiwanese websites are so ugly. I mean, take a look at the Information For Foreigners site. It's just too busy. Too much going on, and who the hell is that 'David' guy? I asked them about that one time, and apparently it's there because it's 'cute'. Compare and contrast to the US equivalent. 

 

Taiwanese people just expect to be hit with a lot more information when they look at a web page than I would be comfortable with. They like clutter, and things going on - they're looking for context. Simple clean websites are 'boring', and actually a lot worse than that.

 

Here's a story for you: I was teaching a lesson on the importance of structuring information clearly, and playing two recordings to illustrate the issue. Both were descriptions of how to play some or other sport. One was a 'good' example, starting with the objective and a summary of the game, then going into detail. The other was quite muddled. As a warm-up, the students were supposed to listen and then decide which was the better description. Then you go on to talk about why, and teach the elements of a good presentation.

 

The problem was that the students unanimously agreed that the muddled explanation was better than the 'good' one, which they didn't like at all. The muddled one was 'clearer' to them. At about that time I was having problems getting people to agree with me about important topics relating to their education - which they were paying me a quite a lot of money to advise them on. Eventually I realised that my logical organised approach - insisting that they focus on the main idea - was too challenging for them. They needed to have the key information presented to them in a wider context, with other stuff around. Simply holding one 'fact' in front of them and asking them to concentrate on it removed the structure that they needed to make sense of the world.

 

So here's Google. An empty screen with a box in the middle for you to write your query. No distractions. No cute figures. No other stuff. No context. Scary.

 

And there's Yahoo. Tons of stuff going on. Clutter. Animated cute stuff. Distractions galore. It doesn't confront you. It's safe.

 

So, nobody's going to use Google. Not while it has this boring page design with no peripheral stimulus.

 

This is just my theory, and I expect you could test it with one of those machines that uses lasers (I think) to monitor where your eyes are looking. How much time do Taiwanese spend looking at peripheral stuff compared to westerners? And you could repeat the experiment with the picture. The results would be useful for educators as well as for Google. After all, we're all in the business of helping people understand things. Knowing how they process information is the first step.