Saturday, April 04, 2009

Goggle It


Val McDermid reading.

(On another matter, my father has gained another five pounds. The candy is gone)



When my two-year old grandson found a dinosaur we couldn't identify last week, he said, "Nana, google it." That's how ubiquitous the term and the action has become--it's party of baby teeth vocabulary.

I also heard a octogenarian telling his buddy the same thing at the checkout counter at the library last week. "You might want to google that."

AT THE LIBRARY!!!! Where we used to go to find out what that thing on our heel was, or who the Nobel Laureate was in 1956, or what the imperialist name for Beijing was?

Now we google it instead. Is google your first point of reference for everything too? I must google at least a dozen things a day. How about you? What was the last thing you googled?

(With me, it was slang for testicles. Well, you asked, didn't you? I came up with chandeliers, which worked for me).

17 comments:

Scott D. Parker said...

Yes, Google is my first point of reference. As a kid, I remember always going to our set of encyclopedias for anything I didn't know. Then, in the 1990s, it was those encyclopedia CD-ROMs. Now, of course, it's the internet. I'll admit that I wish I had an iPhone because, as I am so used to Googling things at my desk (and I'm a natural curious person anyway) that there are times when I'm away from the desk where I'd like to know something I don't. Now, I just write a note in my notebook and check it later.

The worse thing about those CD-ROMs of the 1990s was that you'd search for One Thing and go straight to that One Thing. You wouldn't have a chance for your eye to see something else and read it and learn something in addition to your One Thing. That's the best thing about Google. It's the electronic equivalent of an open encyclopedia page.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I still go to the library 2-3 times a week but not for reference material-for CDs and books mostly. Yes google is the fastest way to find something--incredibly quick.

sandra seamans said...

I'm always check Google first, too. The grandsons were wondering what a centipede looked like and we hit the computer to find a pictue of one, then started looking at other kinds of bugs. Sure beat going out and catching bugs to look at. (shudder)

Corey Wilde said...

Google wasn't a lot of help yesterday. I wanted to know when (year or decade even) was the first time that fingerprints were successfully lifted from a corpse, when the prints were not already visible (because, say, the killer's hands were dirty) and could be photographed.

Dana King said...

Yes Google is my first choice. I know they're in position to become the next Evil Empire, but it's just so damn easy to find stuff once you get the hang of how to phrase the searches. In fact, I'm online now to see if there's a way my Beloved Spousal Equivalent can archive her Incredimail, as we think the size of the file is degrading her performance.

Her computer performance. Get your minds out of the gutter.

pattinase (abbott) said...

It's great for grandkids. We google car washed, his passion at two, all the time. DOn't like the naked lady version though.
Yes, it's not infallible. Sometimes we do have to think on our feet for another source.
Incredimail is a new one for me.

Randy Johnson said...

I just googled a movie last night I wrote a post on to get some background. I use it quite frequently these days.

David Cranmer said...

I hate to admit it but yes I constant Google all day long.

pattinase (abbott) said...

What did we do before this? Want the weather, movie times, reviews, pictures, I don't know. Google now defines us.

Charles Gramlich said...

Sometimes I wiki it

Travis Erwin said...

Google is taking over the world I pretty sure.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I know it. Wiki involves more trust than Google. But so useful for a quick synopsis of something.

Todd Mason said...

Hm. For weather and movies, I still prefer Yahoo. But for engine-searching generally, Google is the likelier suspect.

Last two searches were about Fritz Leiber and the troubled history of his fine novella "You're All Alone" and novel THE SINFUL ONES (as its corrupt first publisher refiddled it), which are essentially the same work, and Carlos Fuentes and the publication dates of his first novel in English and Spanish, for the index of the BOTTEGHE OSCURE READER contents.

What we did before was call theaters, look at newspapers, use encyclopedias, call reference desks, and generally spend more time, sometimes receiving better answers, sometimes not. But, as with the fingerprints, if it isn't an easily definable question that someone hasn't actually posted something about somewhere searchable, Google might not help too quickly.

pattinase (abbott) said...

The more time thing is the key. We don't have as much time--partly because we're online, like right now.

Lisa said...

Scott and I just finished watching the BBC 3-Part Series called The Impressionists and right away I hit Google to find out the name of the novel Emile Zola wrote that alienated his very close childhood friend (it's called The Masterpiece and yes, I one-clicked it).

I'll bet I Google at least a dozen times a day too. I think it's fantastic. Before the internet, if I wondered about something, I generally wondered for five minutes and then forgot all about it (unless it was in the encyclopedia). Now I learn all kinds of new things every day :)

Lisa said...

Oops...I meant to say the novel Emile Zola wrote that alienated his childhood friend, Paul Cezanne.

the walking man said...

"take no thought for the morrow for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof"

I just copied this from the Google box...so this was the last thing I Googled.