Just Google It!

I admit it. I do it too. When someone asks me a question about my field that I don't have the time or the inclination to answer, I'll often tell them to "just Google it." I mean what could be easier? Go to the one site everyone knows, type in your search, click a button, get the information you're looking for. Simple. Right?

Everyday, newbies to every field are redirected to Google by well-meaning folks who know that the information they need is out there, just a quick search away. In fact there is a rapidly emerging cultural norm that there are certain questions that should be Googled rather than bothering a human to answer it. For those who ignore this norm, say on a support-oriented forum, the response can range from gentle (a helpful link that contains the Google search in question) to belligerent ("try using Google dumbass").

The Dirty Secret

But this overwhelming reliance on Google as the all-purpose help desk obscures a dirty little secret, one that makes sending a neophyte to Google less than helpful: searching is actually quite difficult.

Oh sure, the Google interface is condescendingly simple: the text field, the Google Search button, the I'm Feeling Lucky button (more on this in a bit), and above it all the Google logo in playful toy colors. All of which practically screams "This is so easy a child could do it!" And if entering text and clicking a button were all it took to search successfully, then I'd agree.

What is Searching?

Unfortunately, executing a search is only one of three steps in a successful search, and the easiest one at that. A search for information (as any good librarian could tell you) involves at least three steps:

1. Formulating the query
2. Executing the query
3. Evaluating the results

So, Google makes executing the query pretty simple, though they also have a more complex Advanced Search page with options that resemble the earlier generation of search technologies (anybody remember AltaVista?).

Step 1: Formulating Queries - the Catch-22

But it's the first step that really trips up people trying to figure out basic information. Because in order to formulate a good query, you have to know something about the field you're searching within: concepts, terminology, practices, perspectives, and more. You really need to have a picture of the known universe for the field in your head in order to choose the right terms to zero in on the information you need. Most of us in a particular field (say, web design) do this without thinking. We already know pretty much what we're looking for, we just need some details. So we use Google as a kind of reference shelf.

And here is the catch-22 for newbies: in order to easily find an answer you pretty much have to already know it. More specifically, if you're new to a field, you need basic information, so you may get redirected to Google if you ask a basic question. Now since you're new to field, you obviously don't have that picture of the field in your head, so you can't formulate a good query. This means you don't get the answer you're looking for. So you're left with two options: either flounder with searching until you finally strike gold or go back to the forums and ask your "stupid" question again.

The geek consensus seems to be that people should suffer the floundering as a rite of passage to greater knowledge. No pain, no gain. Which is great if you're looking to prove your web machismo; less so if you're just looking for an answer to a question.

Step 2: Executing the Query - the Simple Googley Part

But let's say you've managed to formulate a good query (step 1). You can then hit the Search button and let Google execute it. Congratulations. That was step 2 and what most people think of when they send someone to get information from Google because it's so easy. Almost instantaneously, you've got loads of results. Which means you're left with the overlooked third step, evaluating the results.

Step 3: Evaluating the Results - a Point in Every Direction is the Same as No Point At All

To be fair, Google tried to mitigate this problem with their Page Rank algorithm. By evaluating the quality of other links to a particular page (along with a bunch of other factors that are more or less secret), Google orders your results in terms of their relative respectability.

Alas, this often isn't as useful as you might hope. Even if you're in the right ballpark with your query, unless you're really experienced at winnowing the chaff from the wheat, it's very overwhelming. Remember that "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google's search page? It really is a gamble. The chances that you'll be lucky enough to go directly to what you're looking for with one result must be on a par with winning the lottery. That is, not good.

Because so much of a business's success can rely on their relative ranking in Google search results, there is tremendous pressure to game Google's system. With profit as a motivator, business has been pretty successful. Whenver you search on something that has any kind of commercial potential (i.e., almost everything), your results are likely to be clogged with businesses selling something related to it, fake review sites with keyword loaded but useless text and lots of money-making affiliate links, price matching services, catch-all sites with nothing but advertising, and other results that are crap if you're looking for good, solid, reliable information.

Despite Google's counter-efforts, these useless search results seem to be on the rise. Most of us can still use the results, however, because we know how to ignore the result spam by looking at the titles, the descriptions, and the links. Again, we already know what we're looking for, so it's easy to ignore the obviously wrong stuff. Someone new to the field does not yet have this crap filter and so can get lost in the maze of commercially-loaded results.

Even if you were able to somehow avoid the huge barrier presented by commercial attempts to snag the newbie searcher, there is still the task of evaluating the "good" results. Here you can find such a wide variety of answers to a question that it's almost the same as no answer at all. When the answers to your question can range from reading a helpful but not prominent How-To, to selecting a checkbox in an administrative configuration screen, to coding an entire PHP module, it can be hard to know which applies to your situation. Here again, knowing the answer already is what makes these results useful to those of us who search for them everyday.

Can I Google a Solution to This Problem?

So what is the solution? Well, you could do your part to increase the search results ranking of good, reliable basic information in your field. Link to it if it's someone else's; make it search engine-friendly if it's your own (just Google "SEO," heheh). If it doesn't exist yet, then write it and post it somewhere findable.

If there was only one thing to recommend, however, it would be to realize that "just" searching using Google is not necessarily an easy thing for most people, especially those who are new to a field or relatively new to web searching in general. It's a difficult, complex, and messy process that is getting tougher, and the difficulty is only obscured by the supposed simplicity of Google's interface. Have some compassion for newbies. If you're going to tell them to use Google, try to give them some search terms that are likely to produce helpful results in the first few pages. If there are consistently spammy results in your field, warn them about it so they can be avoided.

Remember that a field or area does well because it teaches newcomers. And in that respect, the helpful assistance of someone who has already climbed the learning curve will always mean more than any page of search results.