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Comment by onion2k | Hacker News Reader

Google's autocomplete feature uses your web history as part of it's algorithm for finding results, so perhaps Google just thinks you're an idiot. When I search for "windows 7 how do I " I get things like "windows 7 how do I make myself an administrator" and "windows 7 how do I create a restore point".

It seems possible (likely?) that Google are using your environment data too - an browser on OSX is likely looking for more basic information than a browser on Windows.

Regardless, this is a pretty rubbish test.

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I got my results from searching in Incognito.

Google can still use your web history even if you're in Incogito mode if you've logged in to any of their services. http://www.cbronline.com/blogs/technology/how_secret_is_g

EDIT: Also, your conclusion:

"Over time, these autocomplete suggetions will change, but for now it’s clear that a lot of people using Windows 8 don’t know how to do the tasks they are familiar with in Windows 7."

Why are you assuming that they're Windows 7 users who are now unable to do tasks after an upgrade? What if the Windows 8 users are people who are new to Windows?

It's certainly a possibility, but my guess is that based on windows' pretty crazy market penetration (I don't think I've ever met anyone who's _never_ used a windows machine at least at work or school), and the fact that most switching is going the other direction (away from windows), the number of people "new to windows in general" is not worth considering.....but that's just a guess.

EDIT: I guess I'm not considering people who are just buying their first computer, and that that computer is a windows 8 machine......I would be really curious to see the numbers for OS breakdowns for "first time computer buyers", and how many of these were people who genuinely never had their own vs. adults who previously used machines owned by their parents.....I'd imagine this number is also pretty small these days....

I agree. I imagine most first-time Windows users are children shown the ropes by their parents who are thus less likely to search when they can't figure something out, while a large portion of first-time OS X users are teenagers or adults moving away from Windows who often don't have or want someone to guide them through the OS every step of the way and who are thus more likely to search for solutions to their problems.

an browser on OSX is likely looking for more basic information than a browser on Windows

What's the reason for thinking that?

Let's give OP the benefit of the doubt and assume they don't mean to imply OS X users are inherently or on average less tech-savvy or intelligent than Windows users, because that's ridiculous. From http://flowingdata.com/2011/04/26/mac-vs-pc-people/:

> Mac people are 21% more likely than PC people to consider themselves computer-savvy gearheads.

> 54% of PC people have completed a four-year college degree or higher. The same can be said for 67% of Mac people.

Obviously this is "just" a survey, but it's one with 388,000 users participating, and I haven't seen any other surveys or research that concludes the opposite.

So, let's assume their reasoning is that there are more people switching from Windows to OS X than the other way around, that these people are not very familiar yet with their new OS, and that these OS X users will thus search more basic "how do I do X?" queries than Windows users, most of whom have been using the OS for years. Makes sense to me.

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