Sunday, November 28, 2010

Too Much Information?

Sometimes I think I just don't know how to properly use Google. Do you ever feel that way?

You key in something that you think you'd like some good information about and hit the enter key only to find a kazillion responses from Google -with 99% of them just being advertisements about a specific product -and often not really what you wanted to learn then too.

Recently, I did a search on "Diabetic Testing" and instead of getting really usable information, all I got was hits for places where one could order this type of equipment but anything about the equipment itself, reliability and such, was kind of hidden away in a circular type of information piece.

I wonder if someone were to key in a question, like how to get rid of acne fast how many hits that would generate? And would they give actual answers first, then advertisements or would it just be the other way around.

I do enjoy being able to use a search engine like Google and a few others too from time to time, but I think my problem is that I am spoiled, having watched way too many episodes of Law and Order (or other programs) where they go to the computer, automatically know exactly what word or words to enter and in a matter of nano-seconds, the computer pulls up a file that takes the detective right straight to the information they are seeking -no need to read through page after page of useless information, ya know, to get to the one tiny sentence, or word, generated in the page hit.

Maybe I just need to learn better -and easier perhaps -ways to use the search engines -or maybe there's a need for the search engines to search differently -faster, easier, more accurately.

6 comments:

Maggie May said...

I have found lots of good information on the different subjects that I goole but some are just silly and some not very nice. I don't like the adverts when its only information that you want.
Maggie X

Nuts in May

Travis Cody said...

Sometimes it can be tough to figure out how to narrow down the search so you get the specific information you want. I'm glad I learned good research methods when I was in school. Even though I learned how to navigate books and periodicals, I find that those skills also serve me well on the internet.

Berni said...

What exactly do you want to know and maybe I could direct your to the site that would be helpful.

terri said...

It does seem that sometimes you have to figure out a specific search term before you can find the information you're looking for. Hope you get it figured out.

Anonymous said...

I'm a pretty good Googler and what I've found is that persistence is the key. I try different combinations of the words, pick up phrases from the topics I find, and I look for interesting links in articles, even though they are not exactly what I want. People who watch me search usually say, "How do you do that?" I can't tell them ... there's no method to my madness...

Suldog said...

It helps to go to "advanced search" and use some qualifiers - language, date range, words to NOT include in the search (to cut down on ads, "free" and other such keywords). I'm not an expert, by any means, but that sort of stuff helps to thin the herd.