# Inability to search for simple stuff online **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 30, 2022, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383 "2022-05-30T20:41:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/41 "2022-05-31T16:43:56Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > If it wasn’t for answers like these, [Nextdoor.com](http://Nextdoor.com) would have no content. Actual conversation on nextdoor What are they building by safeway? It’s a pot shop. No, it’s a burger king. Looks like a pot shop to me. Damn liberals. Let’s go Brandon! No, it’s a Burger King. I think it’s an In-N-Out burger, because my boyfriend really likes those. I heard it’s a Burger King. I hope it’s a pot shop. Turned out to be a Dunkin Donuts when all was done. Though I really wanted an In-N-Out Burger. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/42 "2022-05-31T17:02:33Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > It’s worth remembering that the first result varies by geography and search history. I have a great deal of difficulty googling things about London, for example, because google directs me to results for London, Ontario by default. It can be difficult to get out of a filter bubble. Well said. As the others have already elaborated on. There is a second, and IME less obvious issue. In The Beginning … Google was essentially a public utility. They indexed what was out there, and most of what was out there was voluntary informative content. Meantime, the internet grew up until the vast majority of content is somebody trying to sell something, and right alongside with that Google grew up into something predominantly interested is helping websites sell you something. Which is great when you want to buy something. But sorta sucks when you want non-commercial information, not a sales pitch. Of late, (and this may be a reflection of my own filter bubble and efforts at online anonymity vs anything Google has done on their own), but I get primary results with links to wiki far more than links to sites promising me I can “Buy a Douglas DC-10” when I’d searched for “Douglas DC-10” So maybe, just maybe, the pendulum is swinging a bit the other way. Or else Google has recognized I personally don’t click on their “Buy Douglas DC-10” links, but you’re all still seeing them or their equivalent. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/43 "2022-05-31T17:28:49Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > So in short, we’re (the SDMB) all pretty much tech elitists. Wow. Wait’ll I tell Mom! 😊 ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/44 "2022-05-31T17:34:49Z")
Just beware the inevitable consequences - you are now the ‘tech guy’ of your family! [I have lost track of the number of times I’ve done tech support / troubleshooting for my parents and in-laws, 80-90% of which was done via google searches for fixes, which brings us back to the OP] ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/45 "2022-05-31T18:16:23Z")
I think a lot of the time, especially on platforms like Facebook, people actually want a conversation about the subject, not simply the answer to their question. And a lot of the people replying want a conversation too. I think a lot of the older folks on FB, it’s their only online use and they can really only do basic things on it. My wife has mentioned many times where the same person has to ask how to post a photo every time they want to post one. You even see a bit of it here in FQ, with thread drift after the questions are answered. We are talking about social media after all. It’s supposed to be a place to interact with other people. Far more annoying to me is mentioned upthread - people who don’t read the OP but jump in anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/46 "2022-05-31T18:24:16Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > On another related note, has anyone else noticed that when smartphones first became ubiquitous, it became popular to use them to settle those little bar-trivia arguments you used to get into when out with your friends, which previously could never really be settled, but since then, we’ve reverted to having said arguments and ignoring the smartphones we all still have? I noticed something new and worrisome with my nieces this weekend (aged 10 and 12). One was reading a book about the Titanic. My dad asked what date it launched and what date it crashed. My niece was pretty sure she knew, but the older one said “I’ll look it up.” She picked up her phone and asked Siri about the dates of the Titanic. Except she didn’t ask it in a very clear way. And then when the results came up, the results were either wrong or she read them wrong. What she got was that the Titanic sank 3 days before it launched. They were on their way out the door to go home at this moment so they just went about their business, not actually coming to a conclusion as to the real dates. So the question was asked imprecisely and a bad result was given and read. There was no follow-up and no further investigation. I’ve seen my mom and other people do this with Google searches (not through Siri). Typing something in, seeing the first answer and running with it. As someone who does web development and has a bit of knowledge of how SEO works, and how there’s a constant struggle for sites to get at the top of results, even with Google trying to do the work to make sure results are truthful and useful…All I got to say is yeesh. Your scenario is going to be more common even when people DO manage to “look stuff up” because the data is messy as hell. The days of steps to verify are over. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/47 "2022-05-31T18:42:51Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I didn’t have any prior contact with anyone there So maybe they did have you on informal ignore, if they’re cliquish enough. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/48 "2022-05-31T18:50:33Z")
The really baffling part is that they could have entered the exact same thing into Google that they posted to the Facebook group, and Google most likely could parse it and return useful results. I think a lot of people are assuming that search engines ossified in the late 1990s, and that you have to approach it as if you were writing some sort of complicated database query or something, instead of just using normal language, which is one thing they can pretty much handle these days. > [@beowulff](#): > > If it wasn’t for answers like these, [Nextdoor.com](http://Nextdoor.com) would have no content. Oh, they’d have plenty of the usual “there are sketchy **black** people walking on my street!” and other grumpy/sheltered old people content. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/49 "2022-05-31T19:15:46Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > So maybe they did have you on informal ignore, if they’re cliquish enough. Sometimes I think the majority of the world has me on “informal ignore”. Like when I"m standing in line and someone just walks in front of me. Perhaps it’s my invisibility superpower. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/50 "2022-05-31T19:18:40Z")
I’m similarly baffled, but have started to get more sympathetic to them as the internet gets filled up more and more with what seems like machine generated content. You search something and you get a long list of results and half of them look like they were written by a high schooler copying paragraphs from different sources without editing away repetition and contradictions. Sometimes I either don’t know enough the topic to tell which links might be reputable sites or all the results seem equally bad. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/51 "2022-05-31T19:24:47Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > …She picked up her phone and asked Siri about the dates of the Titanic. Except she didn’t ask it in a very clear way. And then when the results came up, the results were either wrong or she read them wrong. What she got was that the Titanic sank 3 days before it launched… Googling something is no substitute for being able to think. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/52 "2022-05-31T19:31:13Z")
One of the great discoveries caused by the internet is that a substantial percentage of adult Americans have very poor reading and writing skills. The internet gave such people an endless forum to display this sad fact. An even larger segment has very poor reasoning ability. Not being able to use a search engine is a function of both poor language skills and lack of the ability to do language reasoning. “I got 2 million hits, I need to narrow my criteria” or “None of this is in my area, I need to put in a geography word”. Remember that law about how smart people consistently underestimate how low the average intelligence is? This is an example of it. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/53 "2022-05-31T20:02:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > but I get primary results with links to wiki far more than links to sites promising me I can “Buy a Douglas DC-10” when I’d searched for “Douglas DC-10” I clicked on one of those shopping links once – in my cases it was “Buy Boeing 707 – best prices for Boeing 707”. I was just curious what the results would be since I knew full well I couldn’t buy a real Boeing 707 online. What I got was a Google Shopping page with links to things like model airplanes on eBay. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/54 "2022-05-31T20:13:04Z")
I work in Interlibrary Loans for a medical school. There’s a significant amount of research done there too. _At least_ 50% of all my borrowing requests are for stuff we _definitely_ own. I can have the PDF of the article on my desktop within 5-10 seconds of opening the request. Yet these people, who are medical professionals or on their way to becoming one, are somehow incapable of finding the material themselves. I used to think it was our system that was the problem; it was kind of confusing to use, so after much wrangling I got them to make our home page literally just a search box, Google style. And yet, they still would rather fill out the rather tedious Interlibrary Loan request form for each and every request, that I intentionally made to be tedious, than just learn how to find the damned articles on their own. They could have their material immediately instead of waiting for me to get to their request and fill it. They think they’re saving themselves time by making me find this stuff for them, but they’re doing exactly the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/55 "2022-05-31T20:49:03Z")
I think you are missing something. They aren’t interested in finding the materials themselves. They want a servant to do it. I have a friend who was a reference librarian at a well-known graduate school, and the entitled attitude the students had would curl your hair. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/56 "2022-05-31T21:07:55Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I think some people’s only method of obtaining information is to ask other people. They either can’t look things up or (more likely I suspect) prefer information someone else has given them, in particular - as opposed to information generally available. > > I think it’s related to the way some people’s primary method of working out what to do is to watch what everyone else does, and copy them. This may be the case. In my job, we provide a lot of complex information to the public. The information is often so complex, that it can only be reasonably communicated in writing. But even if the information is simple, we get calls constantly from people who just can’t seem to understand one or two sentences of simple explanation. They either don’t bother to read or are unable to process information through reading. They also don’t want to answer an e-mail message–“I just want to talk to someone.” They can’t or don’t like to express themselves in writing. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/57 "2022-05-31T22:05:03Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > On a related note, what’s up with people who answer a question with completely wrong information, AFTER the correct answer has clearly and obviously been given? I see this all. the. time. It happened to me just recently on our town FB page, where I gave the correct answer, and then four or five "I don’t know"s and 2 hours later, someone posted the same thing. I did see one a while back where someone said “I literally answered that ten posts ago” and the person responded “lol - I don’t have time to read the whole thread!” So, I think part of it is: they don’t give a shit, they just want to give an answer. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/58 "2022-05-31T22:20:55Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > It happens among my IRL friends all the time. This. I usually answer them by googling it on my phone right in front of them. I then say, “You know, you can google for answers yourself any time you want.” One friend admits that she’s just too lazy or that she never thinks these questions until she is in my presence. Um, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/59 "2022-05-31T22:23:40Z")
I have a friend who will call and ask me questions with trivially obvious answers. I mentioned to someone who was listening to our phone conversation that he “will pick up the phone before he will pick up his brain." ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383/60 "2022-05-31T22:24:53Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > One friend admits that she’s just too lazy or that she never thinks these questions until she is in my presence. Um, yeah. “You are my google-servant.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-search-for-simple-stuff-online/965383.md?page=4)