# I wish Americans would use Google occasionally **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 11, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565 "2005-11-11T13:54:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565/61 "2005-11-13T02:16:38Z")
[Fortean](http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/web/fortean/1/-/1/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/417/top) More than one search engine, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565/62 "2005-11-16T23:00:40Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Uh, no. TCP/IP _is_ the Internet. If the networking system predates the invention of TCP/IP, it by definition is not the Internet. > > I never claimed Cerf and Kahn invented computer networking. Neither did my cite. I claimed they invented the Internet, and they did that by inventing the foundational protocols. Yeah, but check out the article I cited. The \* concept \* of the internet and what it was going to do was clearly outlined long before TCP/IP showed up. If those protocols weren’t around, something else would have been developed. The article makes it \* very \* clear that there were many, many people working together to make it happen. To me, it looks like Licklider’s vision. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565/63 "2005-11-17T02:31:25Z")
**Finagle** : Check out the post I made right after the post you quoted. There were a whole lot of people trying to invent heavier-than-air flying machines in the early 1900s, both in America and abroad, but the Wright brothers actually did it first. If they had failed, someone else would have done it first and it wouldn’t have been too much later, either. A lot of history is down to chance. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565/64 "2005-11-17T03:24:34Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > **Finagle** : Check out the post I made right after the post you quoted. There were a whole lot of people trying to invent heavier-than-air flying machines in the early 1900s, both in America and abroad, but the Wright brothers actually did it first. If they had failed, someone else would have done it first and it wouldn’t have been too much later, either. A lot of history is down to chance. Well, we’re gonna have to agree to disagree. I think a better analogy would be Henry Ford. Lots of people had horseless carriages operating, but his “transport protocol” won out. TCP/IP is an essential component of the internet, but it’s still a pretty low level protocol. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565/65 "2005-11-17T04:45:14Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Well, we’re gonna have to agree to disagree. I think a better analogy would be Henry Ford. Lots of people had horseless carriages operating, but his “transport protocol” won out. TCP/IP is an essential component of the internet, but it’s still a pretty low level protocol. Oh yeah, Henry Ford would have been a better example. No question. And we will have to agree to disagree over the importance of TCP/IP. It wouldn’t have been as easy to innovate with a more cumbersome or ‘featureful’ low-level protocol, and it wouldn’t have been as easy to get the Internet out to the common man without a protocol as fault-tolerant. ---
**Author:** ![WilhelmGefallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9f8e36/32.png) [@WilhelmGefallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilhelmGefallen)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565/66 "2005-11-17T05:59:09Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > **Finagle** : Check out the post I made right after the post you quoted. There were a whole lot of people trying to invent heavier-than-air flying machines in the early 1900s, both in America and abroad, but the Wright brothers actually did it first. If they had failed, someone else would have done it first and it wouldn’t have been too much later, either. A lot of history is down to chance. Minor nitpick, they were trying to invent powered heavier than air flying machines (of which the Wright brothers succeeded first) Otto Lilienthal actually succeeded in heavier than air flight 8 years prior [Cite.](http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/flight/flight/history.asp) Also Im pretty sure a Brit made another heavier than air (non-powered) flier a few years prior to the Wright brothers, unfortunately I cannot recall the name of the man, however IIRC the invention was actually a canoe with what was basically a hang glider over the top which was launched by his servants and piloted by his coachman. The flier is being held in a museum in Britain (again IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565/67 "2005-11-17T14:55:26Z")
James Burke explaines how the internet was invented because Issac Newton didn’t eat a ham sandwich. Next on Connections, ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565/68 "2005-11-17T18:49:35Z")
> [@Uncommon Sense](#): > > And on top of that, sometimes the question is asked facetiously, to feign ignorance, or as an attempt to downplay the importance of the person in question, e.g., “Whose **Fortean**?” I used to be **Fortean** , but then I turned **Fiftean**. _d&r_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wish-americans-would-use-google-occasionally/330565.md?page=3)