# people telling you to search google **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 3, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915 "2004-09-03T04:36:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vinniepaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@vinniepaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vinniepaz)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/1 "2004-09-03T04:36:26Z")
i dont get this. you ask a question. they say “you should search google before posting here” as if i broke some barrier of rudeness by daring to put a thread on here that can be found with some easy research. if you find a question so disgustingly obvious, nothing is requiring you to post there. grrr ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/2 "2004-09-03T04:39:33Z")
Link? You will occasionally get a snarky comment telling you “Google is your friend” which does indeed infuriate me. I happen to use Google a lot, and rarely have to ask a question that could be found through a basic Google search, but a lot of people aren’t that familiar with doing a good search. And seriously, we have GQ because people _enjoy_ answering other peoples’ questions. I agree - if the only thing you have to contribute to the thread is “Google is your friend” then why bother at all? Five minutes after said snarky comment is posted, someone is going to come along with the answer anyway. ---
**Author:** ![vinniepaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@vinniepaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vinniepaz)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/3 "2004-09-03T04:50:21Z")
> **[what is xml?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=274244)** > > i was at www.snopes.com and they have an option on their “whats new?” page to view it in “xml” i clicked it and i was sent to something that resembled my (admittedly ingorant) view of computer coding. whats xml? theres a link, although thats not a good example because the poster did answer my question. it still annoyed me that they had to include that little google comment. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/4 "2004-09-03T04:59:08Z")
Nope, that’s a great example. As I said, many people came in with an answer to your question - the Google comment didn’t need to be made. Especially when it’s a subject as technical and complex as XML - there’s no way you’re going to find good information just by doing a basic Google search. That’s where people come in - to give you nuanced info. It would have annoyed me, as well. ---
**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:** [September 3, 2004, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/5 "2004-09-03T05:13:01Z")
Yeah! Fuck 'em all, man! I think many questions need more than just a google search. For instance, I was once searching for info on comets and came across the Heaven’s Gate group. Real accurate info there, let me fuckentell ya! It sometimes take a little insider knowledge to know which fucking gogglefucking resultenfucking is the correct fucking cite. Fuckers. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/6 "2004-09-03T05:14:28Z")
Ahh thank you **NCB** for Pittifying this pitting. I knew something was missin’. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/7 "2004-09-03T05:26:36Z")
What you should do is ANSWER THE QUESTION and then explain how you used google to find it (i.e. what search terms you used). Then the OP can learn two things in one day. Anything else is a waste of bandwidth and time, or unnecessarily obnoxious. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/8 "2004-09-03T05:41:03Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > What you should do is ANSWER THE QUESTION and then explain how you used google to find it (i.e. what search terms you used). Then the OP can learn two things in one day. > > Anything else is a waste of bandwidth and time, or unnecessarily obnoxious. Even that isn’t much good most of the time. You can throw all kinds of data and facts at a person, but it’s alot more helpful if there’s someone who can help make sense of it all. Knowing that E=MC[Sup]2[/Sup] is the theory of relativity does absolutely nothing to explain to me _what_ the theory of relativity is. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/9 "2004-09-03T07:13:38Z")
I’m right with you, OP - these fucking ‘Nick Burns, Computer Guy’ nerds who constantly berate people for asking a simple question can kiss my ass. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve searched for the answer to a question, only to find twits saying, “Why don’t you Google it?”, and nobody answering the fucking question. Here’s the thing: I AM Googling it, and all I’m finding are snide comments, but no answers. IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER - SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. Thank you. Don’t forget to buy some orange drink in the lobby on your way out. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/10 "2004-09-03T10:19:54Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Knowing that E=MC[Sup]2[/Sup] is the theory of relativity does absolutely nothing to explain to me _what_ the theory of relativity is. [nitpick]E=mc[Sup]2[/Sup] is not the theory of relativity. It is one of the **results** of the Special Theory of Relativity.[/nitpick] You should have Googled that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/11 "2004-09-03T11:24:35Z")
Google is a useful tool, no doubt about it and I don’t think it’s inappropriate to mention that in your answer, especially as some people are better at using it than others. But in most cases, people ask questions here because they would like to _discuss_ a matter with real live humans, beginning with a question - they probably don’t just want the question blandly and bluntly answered; Google is a search tool, not a discussion medium. Short posts with links to search results can still be useful, as they can act as a springboard for other research by other contributors, but there are good and bad ways to present your results: “I did a bit of Googling and found [this](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=this), which you might find interesting or useful” = good. “Why don’t you learn to use [Google](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=this) and stop wasting our time” = bad. There are a few categories of question, however, when I’d say it is not entirely out of place to come back with a one-line ‘you really could have worked this out for yourself’ answer; urban legends, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/12 "2004-09-03T11:39:50Z")
> [@Mycroft Holmes](#): > > [nitpick]E=mc[Sup]2[/Sup] is not the theory of relativity. It is one of the **results** of the Special Theory of Relativity.[/nitpick] > > You should have Googled that. 😃 Nitpicking the nitpick: **Special** relativity deals with the case of no gravity. Whilst E=mc[Sup]2[/Sup] falls out of special relativity, it is a result that applies in general relativity also. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/13 "2004-09-03T11:47:58Z")
The linked example thread is a good one, particularly when googling unearths such illuminating snippets as: > [@](#): > > The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a subset of SGML that is completely described in this document. Its goal is to enable generic SGML to be served, received, and processed on the Web in the way that is now possible with HTML. XML has been designed for ease of implementation and for interoperability with both SGML and HTML. > [@](#): > > It is called extensible because it is not a fixed format like HTML (a single, predefined markup language). Instead, XML is actually a `metalanguage’ —a language for describing other languages—which lets you design your own customized markup languages for limitless different types of documents. XML can do this because it’s written in SGML, the international standard metalanguage for text markup systems (ISO 8879). Google is frequently _not_ your friend, and neither are the people who wrote the above piles of bollocks. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/14 "2004-09-03T11:57:02Z")
> [@Angua](#): > > Nitpicking the nitpick: **Special** relativity deals with the case of no gravity. Whilst E=mc[Sup]2[/Sup] falls out of special relativity, it is a result that applies in general relativity also. Nitpicking the nitpicking of the nitpick: Well, Einstein published the Special Theory of Relativity first (1905), and derived the result E=mc[Sup]2[/Sup] there. The General Theory was published in 1916. Then again, in another way your nitpick is correct, because otherwise one could assume that E=mc[Sup]2[/Sup] is only valid in the special case, which disregards the effects of gravity. This is incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/15 "2004-09-03T12:08:12Z")
Just want to join the choir. The SDMB is like the world’s favorite search engine only much better: instead of searching web pages, you search through the minds of brilliant people. And they’ll make jokes and tell you stuff from real life and generally entertain you. And never send you to porn sites with pop-up ads (well, almost never). It’s Braingoogle! ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/16 "2004-09-03T13:30:29Z")
> [@Mycroft Holmes](#): > > Nitpicking the nitpicking of the nitpick: Well, Einstein published the Special Theory of Relativity first (1905), and derived the result E=mc[Sup]2[/Sup] there. The General Theory was published in 1916. Then again, in another way your nitpick is correct, because otherwise one could assume that E=mc[Sup]2[/Sup] is only valid in the special case, which disregards the effects of gravity. This is incorrect. Hey you two, get a room!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/17 "2004-09-03T13:39:42Z")
Just wanted to pitch in my two cents too. I really like hearing about people’s experiences with the things I’m asking about. Can’t get on Google. Plus, I think that most of the people on the SDMB are reasonably sane, whereupon I can’t say for the people out there on the greater Internet! ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/18 "2004-09-03T13:47:03Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Hey you two, get a room!! 😃 Hey! Wait till we start on General Relativity, relativistic fluid dynamics, and quantum theory. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/19 "2004-09-03T14:50:45Z")
I am going to try to frame a different perspective. I agree that just typing “Google is your friend” can be very obnoxious, but it depends on context. There was an OP about seeing Julian Lennon’s drawing that led John to write “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” I Googled it and found the picture at [Snopes.com](http://Snopes.com) in about 10 seconds. I replied with what I did and the link and said “Google is your friend;” the original poster thanked me and smacked himself in the forehead. Bottom line - something that simple and obvious _should_ be Googled first. Also, when someone asks “What is XML?” it really depends on what they are _really_ asking. A basic answer _can_ be provided if a person Googles “xml” or some variant. The issue is that the OP is probably asking a more nuanced question. But until they do a little legwork on their own, they don’t know what they really want to know. If the OP’er says, instead: "I am trying to find out more about XML. I Googled and found this and this (NOTE: not real links; just illustrative), and after reading those, I realize what I really want to know is X, Y and Z - then that OP’er has qualified their question and made it clear that they trying, but still need help. It’s when an OP’er comes across as lazy and/or taking fellow Dopers for granted that a “Google is your friend” may be in order. However, it is obnoxious and perhaps fellow Dopers might instead consider something like “well, I found this via Google - does that help?” and let the OP’er take it from there… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915/20 "2004-09-03T15:16:28Z")
I think it can be said though that (apart from the mods and admins who have some kind of obligation to read and/or act on posts) nobody should really complain that their time is being wasted. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-telling-you-to-search-google/262915.md?page=2)