Eric Kerr

Let me ask a simple question. What would you expect to happen if you typed in http://google.com/mapss in to your browser bar? I’d be willing to bet that you’re looking to be directed to Google’s mapping service, but what do you find?

Ouch, that’s disappointing – now I feel like an idiot, and I still have to adjust my requested URL to be typo-free. Some people simply would have typed in “Google Maps” in to their browser’s built-in search, but not everyone uses this available functionality. Let’s see what happens when you do a plain Google search for “google.com/mapss”:

Much better. The current system is about as useless as it gets, but searching Google returns exactly what I want to see. For a company that strives on using data, Google is missing an opportunity to create value and display more search ads. It seems obvious to me that all misspelled Google product URLs should be directed through Google’s search engine rather than displaying the current “Not Found” dead end, providing more value to end users and creating more ad impressions/revenue for Google.