"G" is for Google

Sometimes, I wonder how we survived without the internet. It doesn't matter what I'm doing or what I am thinking of, as soon as I want to know anything, I turn to the internet. The answers are there. However, despite how long it has been around, I am still caught off guard by the people who don't grasp the power of the tool that is so easily available to them.

I am done learning new things until someone can prove to me that we won't have Google forever.
— Brett Minor (@brettminor) December 2, 2012

I can't tell you how many times I have been teaching, when a student, who is sitting at a computer logged into the internet, will ask me something like,

"What's the capitol of North Dakota?"
"Who was the 23rd president?"
"How many species of roaches are there?"
"Where is the coccyx?"

These are supposed to be kids of the Internet Generation. The entire world of knowledge is at their fingertips right in front of them and it doesn't occur to them to use it. However, if you ask them to show you the latest rap video or their favorite porn site, they'll type so fast their fingers blur.

Anything you could possibly want to know (and stuff you don't want to know) is out there, but you have to know how to find it. There are all sorts of crazy tricks to find what you are looking for, but the easiest place to start (and usually as far as you need to go) is .   Just about anything you could possibly be looking for will be available through this site.

Just tried to switch to Bing. Google was like, "You can, but it'd be a real shame if some of your old searches got out."
— Brett Minor (@brettminor) September 19, 2012

In fact, Google is so useful, it will anticipate what you are looking for before you even get it all typed in. I started to enter some searches to illustrate.

After only five letters, Google knew what I was looking for and offered suggestions. After this search you can correct someone when they incorrectly use the word allopolyploidy when they should have said autopolyploidy. Those words are not interchangeable.

Google is also careful to help you understand why things are they way they are, as illustrated by this search.

Well, which is it?

Whichever opinion you may hold, Google will find you the information you need to support it. Google will even find things you didn't know that you wanted to know about. Look what happened when I started searching for myself (Brett Minor).

It's spooky how much Google knows. When I said you can find anything, I meant it. Despite how thorough Google appears to be just by looking at these illustrations, it does something even cooler. You can search by image. I used the picture to the right to see if it was floating around out there on the internet anywhere. It's a picture of me from my childhood that was just being uploaded for the first time, so there shouldn't be any results. To my surprise, Google found something immediately and I was met with the following screen.

I was intrigued as to why my picture might appear on a website about Kenya. Maybe I had a doppelganger there. So, I clicked the links and they both had the same picture.

Why Google thinks that a baby picture of me looks like the Kenyan flag is beyond me, but Google is much smarter than me or anybody, so we have to trust it. Although, I really don't see it.

Can you see the resemblance?

I just don't see it, but I dug deeper into the site Google suggested to see if I was missing something. After a few minutes, I discovered that Kenya is planning to modify its flag in order to make it more personal. Here is a picture of one of the suggested patterns.

So, Google was right after all. I should have known better than to doubt. This should be proof to everyone that whatever you may be looking for, Google has the answer. If you are wondering how far it is to the nearest Clown parade, how many people live in the Vatican, the ingredients in vegetarian haggis, or how to build a carburetor for a flying toilet, then Google is the place to look first.

If you can't find it with Google, then you probably don't need to know it anyway.

Google, I don't need you to tell me how quickly (.15 seconds) you found the results. Relax. You got the job.
— Brett Minor (@brettminor) May 27, 2012

---

Happily participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For the entire month of April, 1,897 bloggers are still working their way through the alphabet. One letter every day but Sundays for a total of 26 days.

Click here to visit the website and get more information to see if you might want to join in next year. It's a lot of fun, introduces you to hundreds of new blogs and gives your writing some fantastic exposure.