Well I guess you’re here reading this because you are a member of my History class. (More specifically my Digital History class) Seeing as this is my first entry in this blog, i feel obligated to allow myself to introduce. . . myself. Much like Dr. Evil “The details of my life are quite inconsequential” and therefore I will not bore you with them. What is relevant is that I am a 26 year old third year undergraduate student who took 5 years off from college. I like Root Beer but I hate Broccoli. I have driven more then 500,000 miles in the past 10 years, but have not left New England. I am deeply political and one of my life’s goals is to see a viable 3rd or 4th party enter the political arena. I love New England, but I hate every single climate it has to offer (65 degrees, zero percent humidity, partly cloudy….Give me 365 days of that and I would be the happiest man alive)
But I digress. . . There was an assignment about a scavenger hunt that I am supposed to be talking about.
It has been the better part of a week since we did our in class online scavenger hunt, and I can say without a doubt that it was the best in-class assignment I have ever had. . . Unless of course you counted snack time followed immediately by nap time from my formative years (But no one counts those. It would be too unfair)
Since we all did the assignment together in class, it seems to be a little rhetorical to go over the who’s, what’s, and where’s of the questions. The answer to all of those questions is simple. Google.com. Though we refined our searches through the use of advanced search, I can safely say that the entire assignment was done using Google as our guide. What if google.com disappeared tomorrow?
I think we highlighted the fact that our culture is hooked on google (much like the 90’s were hooked on phonics) and we stray very very little from that paradigm. I was honestly going to suggest that we use bing.com just too see how effective it would be in comparison to the Search Giant. Is google the best search engine out there, or just the most commonly used engine? Does being one make it the other?
My answer. . . Maybe. Should we as a class, as an academic community, as a society be looking for a better way to find and distribute information? For now, I think we should just heed the age old saying “If it an’t broke, don’t fix it”. But where we will get our information in the future, and how we will disseminate our own research is something we should keep on the radar. It doesn’t have to be a priority anytime in the near future, but we should still think about it from time to time.
I’m intrigued by your criticism of Google. Certainly, Google represents one of, if not the most, popular search engine that the Internet has to offer. Certainly, one could make the argument that the Google does give a certain amount of structure to the knowledge that we encounter. All those individuals using their search engine will likely encounter similar ideas, which may lead to a type of uniformity of thought. Nevertheless, I think that that criticism may oversimplify the situation and ignores the fact that those websites linked to Google possess their own links. Furthermore, I would argue that, in a global age, a certain amount of uniformity of thought may be desirable.
My criticism of Google is based solely on the limited availability of alternate methods of distribution in regards to information on the internet. I am reminded of a scene from the movie “Meet Joe Black” (not the best movie in the world mind you, but it makes a few interesting points) The quote, taken completely out of context, and with the word “Google” in place of the name “John Bontecou”, along with some edits for the sake of space
“I was interested in meeting Google, yesterday. And — impressive, I suppose. But… But, it did get me to thinking… I’d hoped to create something, something which could be held to the highest standards. And what I realized was I wanted to give the news to the world, and I wanted to give it unvarnished. The more we all know about each other, the greater the chance we will survive.
Sure, I want to make a profit. You can’t exist without one. But Google is all profit. Now if we give him license to absorb us, and he has his eye on a few others after us, in order to reach the world you will have to go through Google. And not only will you have to pay him to do this, far more important, you’ll have to agree with him.
Reporting the news is a privilege and a responsibility, and it is not exploitable. We have earned this privilege. Google wants to buy it. As your Chairman, I urge you to agree this company is not for sale.”
Just a thought, or perhaps more accurately a clarification of my position.
I agree that this generation seems to be “hooked on” Google, and I too wonder, how other search engines compare. As, I noted in other comments, what about Yahoo, AOL, or MSN? They all have search engines. What is the best search engine for a historian to use? Does it matter? How do websites requiring subscription fees undermine the search process?
People certainly do rely on Google for their searching needs because the website has made searching so easy. I personally would like to see another website make a serious run at Google because competition is healthy, but I do not see it happening any time soon.