"Google is the help menu," proclaims one design site. Great phrase. If you assume people are unlikely to consult an application's help files, and quite likely to hit the Web, then:
Local help simply can't compete with internet search. I'll go even further-- if you are building local help files for your application, you're wasting your time. And more importantly, you are wasting your users' time.
Smart developers will stop wasting time on useless local help and build community around their product on the internet.
I'll go further in two directions: first, isn't a sizable chunk of users (outside the US, especially) more likely to use mobile phone queries than Web? Second, this is a digital divide issue - if you're on a dialup, you're less likely to hit the Web casually, especially the open Web with its vast population of rich media in imminently clicked content.
(via Channel 9)
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