Have you ever needed an answer to a question so bad but you were told to “ask Google”?
Let’s be honest here. How many times were those responses borne out of a genuine referral than an escape route for ineptitude?
In a way that isn’t patronizing, these responses often prove Google’s potency and popularity.
As Google’s influence moved from the Web to urban culture to being a Fortune 500 company in less than 20 years, the world’s most popular search engine became a significant part of modern-day life.
It may seem that Google ‘knows’ everything, but it doesn’t even know as much as WolframAlpha.
No matter what the “cliché” says I always prefer to ask people than ask Google.
This is because there’s a big difference between ‘search’ and ‘discovery’.
- A search is looking for something you know or have an idea about.
- A discovery is looking for something you don’t know or you are not sure of.
Why would you give me the ‘ask Google’ response if you don’t know if my query is a search or discovery. Even Google can’t tell the difference, it just responds based on the information it has crawled from the internet.
How would you even know if you already have canned responses?
The truth is, I have gotten superb responses from organic discussions with humans, even when I had to go check Google later. Ideas will always bounce off each other.
I will always go for “People” over “Google” anytime, any day.
