Comment by thu2111
6 years ago
Google employees are not a random sample of their user base, so such experiments would be meaningless.
See the fiasco where they broke Terminal Services last year as an example of what can go wrong even when doing experiments on the whole user base.
Also consider how to measure the usage of web features Google's own websites don't use, but are popular on e.g. intranets in Korea.
A/B testing isn't bad, it's a good thing. People are notoriously not very good at giving feedback. Experiments and usage statistics let you get the ground truth about what they really value, and what's really working.
Google employees are not a random sample of their user base, so such experiments would be meaningless.
This is a lazy argument. Google isn't some scrappy tech startup where 90% of the employees are programmers. Google has legions of lawyers, mailroom clerks, accountants, travel coordinators, janitors, cafeteria workers, middle managers of all stripes, and so much more. Thousands and thousands of people it can test on without violating the privacy of the general public.
A/B testing as implemented in industry is -evokes emotional responses eerily similar to those evoked when gaslighting is noticed -uncompensated -inconsistent with any semblance of established research ethics -generally non-consensual -completely undermines trust
I'm not normally one to make a big deal about this sort of thing, but there is a reason research ethics exist. If one can't be trusted to even attempt to follow ethical research protocols, one damn well shouldn't be trusted with anything important.
Your user's time and information is not yours to share. Whether you bury it in the fine print or not.