Comments on: Google as a trouble-shooting tool

By: J. King

J. King — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve encountered this on several occasions:

He: Do you know where to find [insert name of small utility software from ten years ago]?
I: No.
He: Are you sure? I really need to find it.
I: Sorry.
He: Damn it.
*I sigh in exasperation and quickly check Google, whereby the first or second result yields what he needs*
I: Here. [insert relevant URI]
He: Thanks!

I suppose I should be flattered that my acquaintances come to me for help, but… what if I’m not around? Basic search-engine querying skills are highly useful.

By: Steel Buildings Diary

Steel Buildings Diary — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve always been cautious of Google since it indexes too much data. You can find thousands of credit card numbers and social security numbers. It can help you find anything you want and things that you probably don’t want others to find.

By: Radardan

Radardan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Although I’ve been away from the “information trade” in a professional sense for a while, the field of Information Science calls this “search strategy”.

Pierre, your genius was including “goat” I’ll wager since coming up with the longest most specific list is the best goal.

Let’s take a moment in salute to your local librarians: many are purveyors of information to all comers without prejudice.

There are thousands of professionals with Information Science master’s degrees. One just doesn’t meet them in everyday life much.

By: martin

martin — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

It’s the combination of general words (to get all the pages) and a key specific word (to narrow it down) that helps search the net. A lot of people just don’t get that. I’ve lost count of the number of trivial forum postings I have answered after spending 30 seconds with Google. It’s really really easy.