Tikkabik

Several times a week I'll receive a variation on this e-mail:

"I'm trying to get information about [product]. Does it work with [peripheral/computer configuration], do you recommend it, do you have contact info?"

This is one of the big problems with Googling for information.

My byline appears on practically every story I write. On a good day, I'll write a dozen, dozen and a half articles for MacCentral. That byline includes an e-mail link.

Problem is, I don't even remember a small portion of what I write about.

Unfortunately, a large percentage of folks who send this type of e-mail presume that because I've written about it, not only have I reviewed it, but that I am intimately familiar with the product and will know instantaneously what they're talking about. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There's this tendency to pick up the thought mid-stream and just run with it, as if we've just been having a conversation about this product or these products, and I'll recognize what it is they're talking about or how to resolve their problem.

I'm not stupid to it -- usually when I get it I'll try to use our Web site's search engine to see what I've written. Because in some cases, they're referring back to three-paragraph articles announcing a new product that I wrote two or three years ago. And in some rare cases, I'll actually have a nugget of information that they might find useful.

Often, they're e-mailing me out of frustration because they haven't been able to get an answer from the manufacturer, or they're already users of the product and are having a support issue they haven't been able to resolve through other means. I wish I could be an all-knowing oracle of wisdom in these cases. But that's what we pay Chris Breen for. So I sometimes make it his problem, depending on how sadistic I'm feeling.

So here's a tip: If you're asking someone for help that may have written a news article at some point, make sure to at least include a link in your e-mail so they'll know what you're talking about. And don't presume that they have any more info than what you've already read.