Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Why the phrase "Google it" should never be uttered

Perhaps the single biggest pet peeve that I have is the phrase "Google it." After attempting to make some kind of qualification of this frustration, I've come to the conclusion that it's simply ignorant or impolite in any setting for any reason whatsoever. I simply cannot imagine a case in which a person could use this two-word phrase in which it would be desirable to do so.

We know the following "Things" about Google. I'm not going to call them rules because they are not codified as such, but we all know them to be true.
  1. Almost everyone who conceivably might use a computer, particularly in the English-speaking world, has heard of Google or is familiar with the concept of an internet search in this manner. You'd have to go back a number of years to a time when "Google it" could be an appropriate advertisement for that company, before they were widely known.
  2. Googling takes some nonzero amount of overhead time. It is usually greater than 5 seconds even if you have an iPad in your hand.
  3. The notion of typing in a short description of what you seek, and then receiving a list of related websites and pages, is so common-sense that it's intuitively understood by young children. It is well within the mental capacity of even mildly retarded adults.
  4. What you enter in a Google search matters. If you look for "John Wayne" you're not going to find the same result as "True Grit," even though they are related. If you're looking for a specific Matlab GUI which plots zeros and poles for your signals class, you do need to carefully google "zpgui.m" exactly.
  5. The exception to Thing 4 is with extremely popular websites. If you google "Wikipedia" or "wiki" or "wikipedia main page", you will always get the same top result as a consequence of your search.
  6. Not everything on the internet is reliable information.
So why does this add up to making the phrase "Google it" egregious? Well, let me describe what the phrase "Google it" feels like to me:
  1. Vague: What exactly am I meant to Google? If the search phrase is VERY specific, you can tell someone to "Google [whatever it is]" and you exempt yourself from all of my complaints. See Thing 4.
  2. Disconnected: It's like telling someone to "take a hike." It ends conversation because you've been asked to stop talking and listening, and go do something else. See Thing 2.
  3. Wishful thinking: The speaker of this phrase may have shown that he has no definite knowledge about a certain topic and invites you to research it yourself. Unfortunately, this means that you will have to decide which is the pertinent information, and which is not pertinent. You may also be led astray by false information. What led the person who said "Google it" to know that it would lead to good results? See Thing 6.
  4. Wasteful of time: As a caveat to the above reason, if she knows for sure that there is a reliable resource available from a quick Google search, then she must know something about its content. It is almost always easier to be given an instant verbal primer than to be asked to look it up on Google. This is just a case of "I can't be bothered to say ten more words." See Thing 2 again.
  5. Disrespectful of intelligence: See Things 1 and 3. If you insinuate that a person can't use Google and needs to be invited to do so, you accuse them of being stupid. If you insinuate that a person wouldn't know what Google is, you're being either facetious or incredibly impetuous towards him.
  6. Rude: It's just a two-word command. It's so short and rough that it could be used as a command for a sled dog or horse. We aren't sending telegrams and paying by the word; economy of letters is not a virtue in this case. You're dealing with a human being here. Isn't she entitled to just a teensy bit more friendliness? Couldn't you even make the subtlest modification and say "If you'll please google it then..."? See Thing 1 and Thing 4.
  7. Potentially hiding misinformation: If you are told to "Google it" because you've never heard of and are skeptical of information that someone has provided you, then lack of veracity is all but proven. The tinfoil-hatted people spouting their "knowledge" to you have all the excuses they will ever need. Since you were not told exactly what to google, they can claim that you have googled the wrong thing, or didn't do it fast enough before the G-men took down their website of truth. How convenient!
  8. Hiding the fact that you don't know jack shit: If you can throw out a hopelessly BS explanation that leaves an uneducated beginner lost, and then throw in "Google it" and excuse yourself, you've just passed the buck on to the internet. Well done. Now the unlearned person will learn whatever he finds on the internet, which might not be at all related to the topic. And you have deniability because if you're confronted with your lack of knowledge, you can always claim that you found a different item on your never-defined Google search. Congratulations, you're a dick! Look at Thing 4 and Thing 6 yet again.
Some concerns of yours that I have preempted:
  1. What if I am talking to a child who is learning how to use Google for the first time? Then the child should still be taught how to google a specific phrase. One shouldn't utter "Google it" when asking a child to research something. Children are the most susceptible to misinformation.
  2. What if it is already blatantly clear what "it" is in the context we're using? I don't think this is a good reason. See Thing 4. There's a lot of ways to phrase even a simple search. If the search is trivial, then the website or page must already be famous and easily found without guidance. The search is not trivial whenever this is not the case, and that is most of the time.
  3. What if I do know what I'm talking about but I just can't be bothered to help someone out? Then you're being a poopy pants. Come down off your high horse and teach what you know before you let the internet do your job. I get so frustrated that in a modern world where so many of us have such comfort because of all of the technology made by brilliant people, that these same spoiled brats wouldn't dare spend a moment of their time enriching others with knowledge should they possess it.
  4. I want someone to find something very specific which I happen to know is the first result of a Google search. That's still dicey because Google is not the same all over the world. What's more, order is based on hit statistics, so in a few months or even days its position may have moved. How about sending a URL?
  5. What if a person is old and doesn't know how to use computers, so they've never discovered Google? Then she needs more help than you're providing. She needs to know HOW to "google it." You should tell her to type the address www.google.com into the address bar, click into the search bar once it loads, and then type in the desired search. All of that is implied by "Google it" but it's never explained, making this phrase outstandingly useless for teaching.
  6. What if I'm dealing with a genuine idiot savant who is smart enough to know how to use Google but really truly forgot about the option of using it for an internet search?  This is an impossible situation. And if it isn't, send me the name of the person who forgot about Google. I bet he wakes up with a different family every day.
  7. What if I am not being rude or mischievous, and just trying to get someone to do the exact same internet search on Google instead of a crappy search like Yahoo or Bing? This is the strongest point you can make to me. I feel the Bing hate pulsating through me as well. But it's still not good enough, because "google" as a verb has sometimes been interpreted to mean performing any internet search. Some people might interpret it to mean keep trying with their current search tool. So be more specific. Say something like "Use Google instead of Bing" which specifically addresses the problem.
In summation, the phrase "Google it" is worse than useless and should never be uttered again. If you disagree, and have any suggestions on how to use "Google it" in a positive way, you are welcome to state your opinion in the comments.

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