Bug.gd solves a non-problem

[TC] Bug.gd: Collaborative Search And Bug Solutions:

The idea is simple enough and addresses a real problem. A user is presented with an error message, they search bug.gd to see if anyone has solved it. If someone has a solution great, if no one found a solution then not so great; however Bug.gd is betting that when they can’t deliver a solution, the user will ultimately find one. Users get a reminder email in 48 hours requesting they post the solution (presuming they found one) so others can benefit from this knowledge, providing a fluid and regularly updated collaborative database of problems and solutions.

Gotta love the tagline: “bug.gd – Humanity’s Only Hope”. No comment necessary.

I have a simple idea. Stop reinventing the wheel. How about using Google to to see if anyone has solved your error? Bug.gd database got seeded with 60,000 entries from Microsoft Knowledge Base? Guess what? Google already crawled those plus millions of other tech help sites.

For some reason I have a feeling bug.gd people may have already realized this. After the user finds no help at bug.gd and ultimately turns to Google, they’ll get spammed in 48 hours and asked to submit the answer they found. If they couldn’t find the answer anywhere, it’ll be a nice reminder of how worthless bug.gd is.

Let’s pretend now that I am a tech savvy user that just came there from TechCrunch. Maybe I am feeling generous and helpful. I’ll just try to answer some unresolved questions. Oh wait. I can’t see those. If you are going to rely solely on user-generated content, at least make it easy to contribute. And I bet some people wouldn’t mind getting some credit as opposed to posting completely anonymously. Is this the police tip line? No snitching?

Here’s my contribution.