Geek 2 Geek fails to live up to potential, staff ignores/misreads comments and questions, no sign of improvement in sight
So, a month ago I wrote about the website Geek 2 Geek, a personals sight targeted at geeks of all sorts. Well, it's been a month, I've spent some time fiddling around with the search and match systems and I've even tried to get ahold of the site operators directly with some questions. Here are my final thoughts on the site:
- Search
Ok, the search just flat-out stinks. You can specify gender, age range and distance from your zip code. Unfortunately something is seriously broken in the code and the results you receive from a search are incredibly inconsistent. For example if I search for women within 50mi of my zip code, I get 2 results. Fine, maybe there aren't many around me... However, if I expand the distance out to 100mi, I get about 6 results back that are WITHIN 50mi of me. There's something either broken with the search code or how it's displaying results. I get the same inconsistencies when it comes to selecting age ranges. I've found the only way to get any results is to basically search the entire available age set. Searching just 21 to 26 fails to list many people that are actually in that range.
- Matching
I say I want to match against women within a certain age range. I'd prefer 21 to 26 to avoid most age issues. Well, I get results back for 17yr olds (I thought they weren't allowed to register at the site) and 40yr olds. Hardly within 21 to 26. The search problems above exist in the matching system. I'm not getting matches I should be since the "matching" code just looks to try and generate the same list the search does. Matching is inconsistent to say the least.
- Site Staff
I don't know what it is, but it strikes me that the person (people) running the site either aren't native english speakers or intentionally misread comments sent to them, and then ignore further follow-ups. I sent a note to them with my feedback on the search results (not matching, I figured search was a big enough issue), listing how I found inconsistencies based on widening my search criteria. I get a dismissive note back saying "People say they like our matching system better than eHarmony. We've had no complaints" and that was it. I said nothing of matching, just the simple search. I sent a follow-up email to clarify my point and never heard back
- Improvements?
I have no idea if they're even working on improvements/additions to the site. There's been no visible change and there's no news page or anything indicating there's any forward movement on the site. It seems like they built it, tossed it out there and have since abandoned it. I'm not asking for anything like a daily code journal, but something to let users know that there is life behind the curtain... that maybe some of these problems will get fixed. No word. No signs of life. Nothing
So, my final words on Geek 2 Geek are this:
Until significant improvements are made to the search and matching systems, and the site operators pull their heads out of their butts and try actually reading and responding to the comments sent to them, Geek 2 Geek is another site with a ton of potential but yet fails to deliver. Maybe in a few months time it'll improve, but somehow I doubt it.