The anti "Google is your friend" thread

Originally posted by XavierP if you are in an office (or other workplace) and every other person that you see asks you the same question, say "what time is it" and you are standing beneath a clock, wouldn't you get a little fed up after a while? (and yes, it may be a flawed analogy but it is illustrative).

Then you could point them to make a google search for "Google Time" or something. My second hit pointed to this link:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

Note: It's a joke XavierP, I could not resist googling for it, ghehe. I liked your analogy though

As I was typing it, it reminded me of the old (and not that funny) joke. But I posted it anyway.

Personally, I can understand the thread creator's sentiments.

I'm sick of seeing "Google is you friend". Like its the only fking search engine. Like its the end all and be all. Does the title of this page say Google search? If I wanted to Google search I would've Google searched it. Maybe I just wanted an answer from a human being. Now can you answer a question or not?

Its because of sites like these that Google search works in the first place. Google doesn't know anything. It only shows you what other people know. If everyone just answered "Google is your friend" we would get nowhere.
This is just plain excessive. Google is a verb now. F**K google!

Google is my friend?
Google ain't my friend. Do I know the people at google? Is google gonna show up at my wedding or something? No. Google can't even talk back. So shutup about this friend bussiness.

The more I see this "Google is your friend", the more I hate it.

But ironically this site shows up on second page when you google it, because of an anti "Google is your friend" thread.

The least you people could do, if you're going to be pricks, is mix the phrase up a bit. Like

"Excite is your friend"
"Dogpile is your friend"
"This question has been answered previously, here is the *link*"

But noooooo. You have to do this way.
"Google is your friend.""Google is your friend.""Google is your friend.""Google is your friend.""Google is your friend.""Google is your friend."

Now your starting to sound as much like a broken record as people asking the question in the first place.

But hey, what a great idea.

Lets tell people "Google is you friend". They'll find the answer somewhere else and we'll have a smaller user base. Then we won't have to deal with silly questions anymore. In fact pretty soon, we won't have to deal with questions at all.

Smart. Just plain brilliant I say.

How would you like it if you called tech support or any support for that matter and they told you to Google for your answers?
User:"Hey why is'nt my *device* working?"
Tech:"Google it"

User:"Hey, why is my IBM thinkpad running so slow?"
Tech:"Google it"

Lets put it this way. You're the proffessional. I want a simple question answered. Do you direct me to your secretary? Or do you give me a clean(albeit well rehearsed) concise response?


And as for the time analogy..

The next prick that tells me "Its time to get watch".........

Would you rather see either "RTFM" or "STFW"?

I hope that was a rhetorical question.

But if I have to choose.

I'll go with "RTFM". The manual atleast, won't bite my head off.

1. This is a *FREE* forum. We should not do homework that you should have done yourself already.
2. Whenever "Google is your friend" is used, it is pointing the person in the right direction. How are you going to learn anything by being hand-held or spoon-fed?
3. Google is supposed to be understood as a generic term for a search engine, like Kleenex.
4. You are a proven troll, slantoflight.

I guess you missed the key word here, slantoflight....

*FREE* linux forum

Now, if I called up IBM and asked why my thinkpad was busted and they told me to google it, there would be such an outcry from thinkpad users that IBM would simply go under. It's because they are *PAID* tech support people. They are on-call 24/7 with all of IBM's white papers sitting in front of them so that they can read straight from a sheet of paper, as they've probably dealt with the same genius question over and over again.

Once we start paying for our linux support, then we can piss and moan about not having our hand held step by step.

1. Linux doesn't use free as an excuse, so why should you? When someone wants a trivial feature or encounters a bug, do the programmers say "Oh, its free."?
2. Whenever "Google is you friend" it points the person to GOOGLE. Why point someone some place else, when this place clearly says "Where linux users come for help". Why even bother answer more complex questions if the site can't even answer the stupid ones.
3. O rly?
4. You won't help your argument by trying to degrade me. Especially not in this thread. You're only pushing yourself into the further into the author's anti-noob stereo-type.

And in anycase thats not a relevant point and it doesn't defend either this site or the pro "Google is you friend" users.

1.Proven troll? Really? Can I the list?
2.If was a troll, I'd be banned.
3.If I am a troll and not banned, then the moderators are'nt doing there job.
4.This site's not even trollable in the normal sense of the word. This is after all, is a help site and not a discussion site.
The most inflammatory message you could probably post on this site with any desirable effect for a troll is probably "RTFM" or just plain "Linux sux".
5. If am both a troll and banned that still would'nt prove my previous post any less true.

If the person is unwilling to see a forum called Distributions or the 39.5 other topics that day on what Distro is right for them, how can we expect them to use Google correctly? Perhaps under that caveat, I can agree that telling someone to use the Search button (which in my perception is nearly the same as telling someone to use Google) isn't helpful.

There are many questions that have not only been asked and answered hundreds of times, but that can be solved with the correct Google search in less time than it takes to post the question, wait for an answer, and start threads about how you shouldn't have to use Google because this is a Linux forum and Google isn't.

Well, this has been thoroughly pounded into the ground.

I'm done!

The only way for punks to cure their allergies to everything is to expose them to an even greater dose of so called "injustice".

uhhhhhhhhhh, yeah! what he said! ... plus I have the sniffles.....

I just think that in the long run, telling people "Google is your friend" has a counter-productive effect. This is not a good trend. In fact if enough "google is your friends" show up, google wont be your friend anymore.

Its never encouraging for a help site. Especially for a pro-noob. Not everyone is technically inclined. Some people just don't know what to look for. They see the answer in their face, but sometimes they just don't know what to do with it. Its better sometimes to have an answer than a reference.

If your mother had a computer problem you would'nt tell her to google it, would you?

Besides even at the basic level things theres no reason why
the question should'nt equal the answer.

question = answer

This is'nt like a classroom, where just tons of students is just over-burdening this one guy with already asked questions(good teachers have no problem with this, you will notice). This is a whole community.

I'll even provide you guys with an analogy you can relate to

This is'nt ftp, where one host is being swarmed and the FTP hands out bandwith to who it feels like and when it feels like it.

This is bit-torrent where data is distrubuted and verified simultaneously time and time again from person to person. When one person is unable to answer another one will.

Thats the way it should be.

Good points SlantofLight. It is, often, very easy to forget that we have all been noobs at one time or another. But when we see the same tired questions over and over it is often the case that saying "Google is your friend" is the lesser of two evils - the greater evil being that you start ranting about lack of searching ability.

Even on Windows forums I have seen similar things. I think it's a mix of "I searched, why can't you" and "ah god, not this question again".

Originally Posted by 27307SB Hello fellow LQ'ers, Lately I was visiting the forum and was browsing around since I myself have underfound some problems with linux too. Now a couple of times I was annoyed by this 'smart remark': www.google.com Google is your friend! Now this is where I get aggrovated! We as a community are on a website/forum called Linuxquestions, now as we all know, Linux stands for the OS, and questions for any questions referring to the OS. Thus we ask our questions in the hope a fellow community member will help us with our problem. WE (at least I) DO NOT WISH TO BE REFERRED TO GOOGLE! As irony has it, it was google that brought me to this forum in the first place, so please don't put me in a never ending cycle . Now for the 'smart-asses', I know that google gives more hits then LQ alone, but if we get referred to google once again, then what is this whole forum's point? And don't give me a dumb excuse like "Yeah but some problems are really easy to solve" THAT'S WHY WE HAVE A NEWBIE FORUM! Either post the link YOU found in google while searching for a way to help, or just don't say anything at all. Personally I find the 'google is your friend' just a big 'get alot of posts fast' scam. And ask yourself this question, are you really helping that person, or are you just making him/her feel more n00b? For future reference, if I were to ask a question on LQ and was given an 'answer' like that, I will simply refer them to this thread, and for those who are with me, please do the same. I would like to hear other's opinion about this too. I'm open for any criticism and/or support in this matter. Greetings, An aggrovated newbie linux student /me has left this thread, see page 2 in the thread for his final conclusion

Google is your friend
www.google.com