The 2010 data is finally starting to come out, and is available at the new website, American Factfinder, version 2.
Problems:
- Using Google chrome (version 9), the ability to add a geographic filter fails silently. This is incredibly annoying.
- Many things (including clicking on what should be normal web pages) on the website require JavaScript. This is not fancy things like scooting data from one area of the page to another. For some reason, this is one area where accessibility seems to be taking giant strides backwards.
- Once I use Firefox with JavaScript on, the filter works, and I start looking at the data. Then I receive a really irritating error message that seems to be blaming me for its random failure. This occurs several times.
So maybe I want to complain about their annoying lack of working with Google Chrome or their bogus error message. Well, I would, except it’s a state secret who to contact about any website issues. No webmaster email is in sight upon clicking on the tiny “Contact Us” button. After a long and fruitless search, I give up on trying to send an email.
Maybe the Census bureau folks don’t want email. Maybe they got too much hate mail when the story broke that Census data was helpful in rounding up Japanese Americans for placement in internment camps in World Ward II. Whoops. I have to say, if I were a Muslim, I wouldn’t get a real warm feeling about that whole incident and giving my information to the Census bureau.
Update: I finally found a “Feedback” button on the site. But it’s too small, and in a weird place – the top bar area where ads usually go. Feedback links should be at the bottom!
