Techiebytes

I’ve been using computers for a long time, and during that time some things have become second nature to me so that they’re instinctual reactions and understandings akin to walking, breathing, and levitating frogs. Sometimes, I forget what it’s like not to know how to do something. The most basic thing of all? Finding stuff. You know, with Google.

Step 1: You do use Google, right? If you find yourself typing “yahoo,” “bing,” “msn,” “ask jeeves,” or “lycos” in to your web browser, you owe it to yourself to switch to what the rest of the world is using — Google. It’s faster, easier, and just better than all the rest.

Step 2: Don’t ask questions. Computers are essentially stupid. They can’t understand natural language — that is, what humans do. They actually can’t understand anything at all, unless they’ve been programmed to or have a statistical model, and even then, it’s not real understanding. Since they don’t think, you’ll lead yourself astray by typing things like “where can I find the best local pizza?”

Step 3: Understand what they have in them. Search engines scour the Internet, and download all the content they find. They don’t really understand it; rather, they just have a big index that they store and search through. So…

Step 4: Be unambiguous and exact. If you live in Cleveland, the word “nearby” isn’t going to be much help. Remember step 3? The computer is stupid. Where is “nearby?” You’ll want to use “in Cleveland” instead — or better yet, just “Cleveland.”

Step 5: Put it all together. Search for exactly what you want, being specific and concise. Below are some good and bad examples. Take a look and you’ll see the pattern (because you’re a human, not a computer). Follow it, and you’ll have much more success in your Googling. (The others work the same way, but that’s the only search engine that matters.)

• Bad: “where is the best pizza nearby?”
  Good: “best Cleveland pizza”
• Bad: “how can I get to New York City?”
  Good: “Cleveland to New York City directions”
•  Bad: “what time is it?”
  Good: “time”
• Bad: “I can’t click on the button”
  Good: “button grayed out”
• Bad: “where to find photoshop demo”
  Good: “photoshop demo download”
• Bad: “you shouldn’t mix Tylenol and alcohol”
  Good: “mixing Tylenol and alcohol”

Filed under: Technology Tagged: | Google, Search engines