Web Searching in a Nigerian Language: An Assessment of Google Yoruba
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Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ibadan
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This study assesses the audience rating of www.google.com/intl/yo/, the Yoruba language interface website of Google search engine (named “Google Ede Oyinbo” but dubbed “Google Yoruba” in this paper for easy reference). The study begins with the level of awareness, which is expressed in terms of actual visits to the site. A survey of the rating of the satisfaction derived by the audience from five expectation categories was carried out twice in two years, across literate, Web-experienced members of five age groups. The findings from the two surveys, which correlate, showed that awareness was low and in fact, those who had actually paid visits to the site, with evidence of response to queries, were not enthusiastic about the satisfaction they derived with regard to their expectations. This uninspiring attitude came about not only as a result of limited service offerings at the site but attributably as a result of audience intrinsic challenges which owe much to colonial legacy interference.
Keywords: Google Yoruba, audience awareness, audience expectations, web search
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H Social Sciences (General)