Googling on google

How can you hate google? That’s right you don’t do you. There is the exception with the google glasses, those are silly. You’re allowed to hate those.
Google is probably one of the best things to happen since sliced bread.
When your sitting at home and and you feel like looking at pictures of cats, what do you use, google. When you have the worst possible hangover from last night and you want so desperately for that headache to go away you google hangover remedies. I think whats probably so amazing about google, is that literally you can type in anything, and something will come up. It broadens and opens our ability to learn new information and develop knowledge about things that we wouldn’t of been able to know otherwise.

Yes of course, there is as much crap as there is actual useful information, which is why it’s probably good to have the ability to sift through what’s real and what’s just utter bs. For instance, the other day I had this pain in my lower stomach and had no idea what it was or how to get rid of it. Rather than wasting my time booking to see a doctor for a consultation, I took the 2 second easy option of googling- “pain in lower stomach” and immediately all these forums and websites appeared ranked in what I established as order of what’s better, all saying different things. Of course it can escalate quickly as some people were saying I may have cancer or a stomach ulcer, I found that the most probable reason for my stomach pain was the suggestion that maybe I just ate my food too quickly, and no i’m not dying I just need to eat slower.

I think another interesting point about google is how it is starting to take precedence over libraries and books. As a uni student who needs to research certain topics or people, I don’t go to the library and look for books that have been written about the subject, I can’t be bothered, and don’t have the time for that. I google ‘Evan Williams’ and instantly there are wikipedia pages and bio pages that have all the information I need within seconds down to the name of his dog and the cereal he eats for breakfast. Once again being able to recognise what is crap and what is relevant useful information will benefit you and your ability to present a good piece of work.

I think it’s interesting how the way we gather information differs from ten years ago. We have all this time to spare because we don’t have to go and ask a librarian what row Barack Obama’s biography is in. We don’t have to read his entire book to get the specific elements about him that we want anymore.

Life is so much easier because of google! (I know yahoo and bing exists as well, but seriously who actually uses them?)