a whack with the cluestick

June 13, 2004 10:24 AM

For next time someone asks one of those questions...
posted by reklaw (14 comments total)

It's true -- Google is usually my first stop for ANYTHING that I am curious about or need to know.

I don't understand people who DON'T use Google to learn things.
posted by davidmsc at 10:37 AM on June 13, 2004

I sense very bad shit coming down on AskMefi soon, thanks to this (frankly lethal) link
posted by matteo at 10:38 AM on June 13, 2004

posted by quonsar at 10:39 AM on June 13, 2004

It's not the Google-able questions that are AskMefi's worst, it's the "I'm going to leave my bed, how do I do that, any thoughts?"-questions.

But it's a good link, reklaw, and a sure bookmark.
posted by mr.marx at 10:46 AM on June 13, 2004

Google's a great first place to check when looking for some pretty simple facts; for anything more in-depth it can give you interesting results but it's no substitute for asking a knowledgeable human being. Why? Because it returns bullshit as readily as fact, lunacy as easily as scholarship, misquotes and distortion as often as citation, rants as often as reportage. In short, Google can only return what's on the web, almost indiscriminately and certainly without any direct metric for the actual quality of the information. In many topics the best information is in books, and books generally aren't on the web. Having someone who's made your subject their area of study to ask can save you going down some very misleading paths indeed.

That said, this page would be a lot more clever if it acutally took parameterized arguments and passed them to Google, listing the results below the chalkboard. As it is it's just a very cheap way to be snide.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:55 AM on June 13, 2004

http://www.RTFM.net
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 11:54 AM on June 13, 2004

As it is it's just a very cheap way to be snide.

Well, maybe you don't care how much you pay to be snide, Mr. Moneybags, but some of us are grateful for the savings.

Oh, and you're absolutely right about books. I despair of people who think "It's all on the internet."
posted by languagehat at 12:08 PM on June 13, 2004

I can't decide if that is more rude, sad, or passive-aggressive. I suppose it could be all three.
posted by Hildago at 12:37 PM on June 13, 2004

When I want the same answer as everyone else will get, I go to Google. When I want something off the beaten path, I go to a9, bananaslug (google twisted) or all the web. Google is a fantastic search engine, but if the answers to all questions are coming from the same algorithm, it leads to a reduction in the diversity of information found vs. information available.
posted by holycola at 1:17 PM on June 13, 2004

So Recklaw, who told you to ... um... use this site?
posted by billsaysthis at 1:27 PM on June 13, 2004

holycola, doesn't a9 somehow piggyback off google? Their results for coffee are almost exactly the same
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:38 PM on June 13, 2004

As far as the bullshit vs. fact argument goes, isn't that the user's problem? If all the sources on a page are all National Review and NewsMax shouldnt that ring some alarm bells?

Or if all the sources on some medical information are "herbal drugs weekly" and "western medicine is evil" etc.

This isn't just a web problem, this is a real life problem. Without some knowledge of sources and critical thinking skills even human-to-human communications can't help you. In fact, its probably worse as its easier to convince someone of something false in person.

The same is true at your local library. I can look up creationism and come away with a dozen books doing their damndest to dress up religion as science. At least on the web I'll get some counter arguments.

I think the real problem some people are expressing about ask.mefi or newsgroups is that its natural to ask someone something and if you're a bit lazy you might just get used to asking questions that could have been answered with just a search engine.

There are exceptions. Sometimes people want to know someone personal experience about something. For instance I can read about how good some academic program is, but I'd also like to ask a few students what their thoughts are. Or I can look up what video cards work with my OS, but I'd also like to know how good customer service is and if anyone got bad service returning one.

Btw, alltheweb.com is good search engine that gives non-google.results. I believe yahoo.com is using that engine or Overture's data now as they no longer use google.
posted by skallas at 1:57 PM on June 13, 2004

posted by wendell at 5:39 PM on June 13, 2004

Oh, and you're absolutely right about books. I despair of people who think "It's all on the internet."

Two years ago, I applied to be one of those ask google researchers. I was pretty thorough about my answers, but got rejected, and I'm still pretty much convinced the thing that shot me is that on some of the questions, I went to the library and grabbed answers from books.
posted by weston at 9:33 AM on June 14, 2004