Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?

Anyone who's seen me knows that I'm likely not begging for food - alas, I have no lack of sustenance. However, I am suffering from a rather serious shortage at the moment, and I feel like I need to beg to the divine gods of Palm software archives to feed my need. No, it isn't food I need. It's information.

Some time ago PalmGear abruptly and with no explanation stopped displaying URLs to developer's web sites. No longer is there any way to get more information about a piece of software, to find out if it does exactly what you want or need, to look at the documentation or the FAQ or any other pertinent product information that may be on the official product website.

I just recently noticed the same lack on Handango. I must admit that it's been a while since I'd visited Handango - I prefer PalmGear even though it too has its faults - so I can't swear to the timing at Handango. But it too no longer provides a link to the developer's site.

No, both sites leave us with a paragraph or two of information at best, a screen shot if we're lucky, a mismash of system requirements we have to hope are properly filled out, and an email address for the developer.

Consequently, instead of quietly and unobtrusively following a simple link to get more information, consumers who use the two most popular Palm software archives (including the one that houses Palm Inc.'s official software site) are left to email developers about everything. Chances are that most of these questions are common questions, questions answered on the product information pages of the website.

Both the consumer and the developer lose in this new paradigm. The consumer doesn't get quick answers, nor does he get a real sense of what the product is or does. The developer gets plagued with excessive amounts of emails, emails that ask questions he's already answered on his website.

Plus, sometimes these questions aren't easy to quantify. Sure if I want to know if the application works on a Palm III, I can ask that easily enough, but what if I don't have any real sense of how a game is played from a paragraph of text and a single screen shot? That's a more nebulous and much harder question to ask. Some people will download the software and try it out for themselves. Some people will ask the question anyway. Some people will just walk away.

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