"Just google it" - helpful or not?

[Espy Vibe 4,278]

What are your thoughts on this? I think it's unhelpful especially with the tone that's usually given. It's rude and usually when people say it, they're making fun of others for not reading or whatever when the reality is that they might've already searched for it but probably used the wrong terms or feel overwhelmed with results. It's a bit gatekeepy as well and pushes people away, especially if it's for a hobby.

It might also be a very specific use case and everyone is misinterpreting what the person is asking about. Just help or don't. Even if it's a troll asking a question that brings up countless results of a known answer, they will make themselves known really quickly to stop answering their questions because it's just a waste of your time (like, stop responding to them). Just go help other people, or again: don't, if you're just gonna tell people to google it themselves.

I doubt people who say this even bothered to look up their specific question. What if there's NO results??? or, what if the answer is poorly written/machine translated/too technical?  That's why they're probably asking, maybe someone out there experienced the same problem and figured it out but never shared it (probably forgot about it) until someone else asks about it in the future, so they share it there.

 

 

I'm making this topic because, elsewhere, a lot of people were making fun of someone for not reading the manual of a product or googling it for themselves to read the manual.  Normally, I would agree with this statement (not the making fun of, just to check for a manual and go through it) but I googled it myself to see what the big deal was and found out the manual isn't even public at all! I did find interesting info though.

The product in question is now discontinued, but per a representative of a company, it was a deal between that business and a larger manufacturer to rebrand one of the manufacturer's products (which does have a manual) but with key differences that were relevant to what the person was asking for, kindly listed out by them when someone else asked in the past.

Essentially, it limited how this person could maintain the product; the answer I gave to this person was "Yes, kinda but it limits your options so here are your options. If I were you I would do the easiest one."  This was all while everyone was groaning and complaining about how "nobody googles anything/reads the manual" blah blah blah 

(and someone else was arguing with me about which product it actually was, even though the name of the product was a bit covered from the pics provided by the original person, you could still make out the name of the altered "exclusive" product rather than the "original" product, AND I linked to them what the representative was saying about it from another forum, but that brings up an entirely different topic of people arguing for the sake of arguing.)

[Mothra 632]

I get why people do it, like if it is a simple google search then asking other people for the answer can be seen as lazy, but a lot of the time "Just google it" has been used when the information they're looking for isn't readily available or there could be a case were if you search for something, you get different answers from the results and don't know which is correct, and so you ask someone. I was told to just 'use the search bar' in a subreddit pretty rudely even though I already had, and what I was looking for wasn't showing up because the post had a spelling error, and another time I was asking a friend for their opinion on something, not a fact, and they 'kindly' sent me a link from https://letmegooglethat.com/ and it really rubbed me the wrong way.

 

To go back to your original point, I agree that it isn't helpful to tell someone to google something, or at the very least it can be said in a nicer way

Edited November 28 by Mothra

[Iforgotmybrain 5,654]

It's always unhelpful. Especially when you do Google something and one of the first posts you come across tells you to "just Google it". You dense bastard, how do you think I got to this topic? Give an actual answer or a link to an actual answer instead of trying to be self-righteous on Reddit, I hate you.

You get told to "just Google it" or RTFM a lot in flight sims, but I don't think the people who say that realize most people don't have hours upon hours to scour through a several hundred page manual just to figure out how to do something. Like, just put the fries in the bag. Answer the question or don't bother to comment.

[Sparklefan1234 170,432]

""Just google it" - helpful or not?"

Question: What if I Google something and I find replies that still don't answer my question? 

I search for help with a section of a video game I'm stuck on and there's someone asking about the same problem but it's from three years ago with no replies.

[Rarity Gemstones 201]

My social understanding may be incredibly stunted here, so forgive me if I am beyond off here, as I lack much in the way of friends and social outings, but I do tend to read quite a bit. Is not the action of asking another person about a subject matter more for the means of showing you have an interest to that person and to see if they wish to indulge you? If so, it would stand to reason that saying "google it", would more or less be a statement showing that you have in interest in taking someone into the fold as it were? Am I understanding that correctly, or am I way off here?

[EpicEnergy 23,218]

Honestly I feel it's unkind and rude to say that in many situations, I don't like it when people say that.

Edited November 29 by EpicEnergy

[Espy Vibe 4,278]

On 2024-11-28 at 5:44 PM, Rarity Gemstones said:

Is not the action of asking another person about a subject matter more for the means of showing you have an interest to that person and to see if they wish to indulge you? If so, it would stand to reason that saying "google it", would more or less be a statement showing that you have in interest in taking someone into the fold as it were? Am I understanding that correctly, or am I way off here?

@Rarity Gemstones Per asking other people for help: yes, it generally is. However, that's not the issue I'm bringing up here. It's very much the opposite when someone responds with "just google it" and makes it borderline troll behavior. It'd be more helpful to say "I don't know."

Here's an example that's based on why I made this thread:

Quote

 

Person A wants to upgrade his prebuilt computer he bought over 5 years ago. He takes some pictures of the inside of his computer and posts them online, asking people what kinds of upgrades he can make.

Person B says "lol people don't know how to read anymore, just google it" without explaining what to look up. It's a very vague response that immediately makes fun of Person A for being "illiterate."

Person A says asks what specifically they should look for, because Person B didn't ever say what to look for. Remember, Person A has little-to-no experience and is interested in the internals of a computer but needs some guidance.

Person B says to go ask the people they bought it from.

Person A has to repeat that they bought it "a long time ago" from one of a few online stores they usually buy from, but they are not sure which one. They also said they probably threw away whatever papers came with it after they were cleaning some time ago, so they're not sure what to do and that's why they're asking on those forums instead of going to google. They don't have a good starting point.

Person B continues to not be helpful at all, arguing with Person A: "well maybe you should google it and read the manuals or your probably dumb." (Yes, they spelled "you're" like that many times.) Remember, the original question was "what kind of upgrades can I make?" So far, Person B has not answered it or helped answer it.

Person A and B are caught in this loop, also bringing in uncalled for personal insults towards each other.

While this is going on Person C wants to actually help, so they try to figure out what computer it is and is able to use a few clues to figure out and confirm exactly what prebuilt computer it is by using some provided information from the pictures and what was said by Person A: the rough time period that it was purchased, a company logo on a computer part (though a bit blurry, it closely resembles the logo of a relatively popular prebuilt computer company), and a model number of another computer part (we will call it "Model-A0" for this example). Another thing that helps was Person A mentioning that it was possibly purchased from an online store, so it helps to narrow down the type of prebuilt computer it is: one made in bulk, rather than a custom made one.

Person C finds the results that come up are very few, other than "Sold Out!" online listings for the computer (which don't provide too much helpful information). Thankfully there is only one little forum post where someone requested the manual for this exclusive part.

A representative of this company says the following to this random question online:

"Hello, Model-A0 has no available manual. But it is based on another part that can be purchased on it's own by consumers by our partner (their "Model-A" part) and the manual is available for that one. However, please keep in mind that there are some key differences between our Model-A0 and their Model-A. The Model-A0 has less rear connectivity for USB devices, one less connection for computer fans, and--while there's visibly space for one--only one spot for an M.2 NVME SSD is actually available as the connector for the second spot is omitted on the Model-A0. Otherwise, the Model-A0 and Model-A are functionally the same. Because they are technically different models, please do not use our partner's website when updating the device.  If you wish to request updates for the Model-A0 part, or require further assistance with our other products, then please contact our support team directly. Thank you."

Person C lays out the upgrade options for Person A as simply as possible, linking back to what the representative said about the differences, and Person A thanks them by saying (paraphrasing) "thank you, finally someone helps, but i don't want to upgrade anymore. i'll just buy a new pc because of this guy but thanks again"

Person C tells Person B that they were unhelpful for not trying to help at all; now Person A has no interest anymore in computer hardware. It's clear that Person B only wanted Person A to look dumb and to argue with them.

Person C tells Person B how they found out this information by googling but only to find out that an official representative of the computer company says that there is NO manual available because it is an exclusive part. However, they listed out the relevant key differences which helped Person C give an actual answer to Person A about their options.

Person B now wants to argue with Person C by saying it's not actually "Model-A0" that Person A has, it's actually "Model-A" (even though the pictures provided literally show "Model-A0") so that means Person C somehow got it wrong, that people shouldn't buy computers and open them up if they have no idea what they're doing, and some other stuff about "grr I don't like this and that."

 

 

In the example, I was "Person C" and, before I responded (while they were arguing!), I wanted to make sure there was actually a manual available so I can link the URL of the manual to the "Person A" and show them what to look for in the future without making them seem dumb. Just making it easy to find and follow for future reference next time, so they have some sort of direction. All I really needed was the model of the motherboard and to figure out what model computer it was to figure out what options were available for upgrades.

However, I found that it was not so simple and it required further research that would make a newcomer like Person A become overwhelmed. There were upgrade options available but it limited what exactly they can upgrade. They clearly were interested but needed guidance, which I was happy and able to provide, but now they are NOT interested because they got into an argument with someone who told them to "just google it" and it made them incredibly upset. I wouldn't be surprised if they say that people are gatekeeping or something like that because of their one experience. It makes me wonder if I or someone else who wouldn't argue with this person interacted with them first. Maybe they would still have some sort of interest still.

In other words, I kept my answer short and sweet for Person A, and Person B got the lengthy response from me. "Just google it? Ok, here is what happens when you 'just google it'. It's more complicated than you make it out to be and here's what I had to look for to figure that out. Did you even bother to look it up for yourself before telling this person to google it?"

Now that I think about it, at least when it comes to computers some of these manuals actually have issues. They're poorly translated (most of these parts are by Chinese and Taiwanese companies, so expect the usual weirdness), diagrams are sometimes poorly laid out, or they just leave stuff out. I've experienced all of these and have resorted to specific places that review these products in-depth in native English.

That's basically how my response went but less lengthy.

 

Hopefully that makes it easier to understand why it's actually VERY unhelpful and VERY rude. I've never seen any help being provided after someone mutters "just google it." It's always met with some sort of nastiness or trolling-esque behavior.

 

 

On 2024-11-28 at 3:54 PM, Mothra said:

a lot of the time "Just google it" has been used when the information they're looking for isn't readily available or there could be a case were if you search for something, you get different answers from the results and don't know which is correct, and so you ask someone.

 

On 2024-11-28 at 4:40 PM, Sparklefan1234 said:

What if I Google something and I find replies that still don't answer my question? 

I search for help with a section of a video game I'm stuck on and there's someone asking about the same problem but it's from three years ago with no replies.

For both @Mothra and @Sparklefan1234: exactly! There's so many different situations as to why someone would ask. Google is not being helpful for them, so they ask people directly, but if those people are saying to look at Google then does anyone actually know anything??

More specifically for Sparklefan, sometimes it's best to take it into your own hands and figure out what to do. If you're going to be the one to figure something out, then you can share your results. The best presentation would be a video on youtube where you can share your journey to discovering what to do, people seem to really enjoy that format even if it's not something they would particularly be interested in. Well, that's if you're a great storyteller. I can't count the number of videos I've seen where it's the most mundane topic but it's presented in a video that makes it so interesting.

I've had a few times where I wanted to know something but didn't know what the answer was after much searching, so I just tried to figure it out myself and share the results. Not in a video format though, just replies on forums or something.

 

On 2024-11-28 at 4:30 PM, Iforgotmybrain said:

You get told to "just Google it" or RTFM a lot in flight sims, but I don't think the people who say that realize most people don't have hours upon hours to scour through a several hundred page manual just to figure out how to do something. Like, just put the fries in the bag. Answer the question or don't bother to comment.

@Iforgotmybrain Yeah. These kinds of situations now make me summarize the relevant sections of the manual to people when I'm able to help.  If they're interested in learning more, they can use the link(s)/source(s) I placed to help them out with their understanding. It's the same with important videos, news, or whatever else would answer their questions.

Even I rarely ask others about technical stuff and resort to trying it out myself, googling terms and going through random results to figure out what to do if it's a more niche issue I'm having or something I'm exploring has little or no info about. All because I've experienced these bad interactions in the past.

"RTFM!!!" - Okay well I did but it's overwhelming and confusing for me.

"Then GOOGLE IT!!!" - Fine, I joined here to ask about what to do but if you're implying you don't know anything and want me to just google it, then I'll leave this community/hobby as quickly as I joined it.

"Why won't new people join this community/hobby???? We need new blood!!" - I dunno, if you can't figure that out then google it maybe? lol

Now that I think about it, this behavior seems to be abnormally present in anything that's very nerdy and technical. There's some exceptions of course.

[SparklingSquirrels 21,341]

Instead say “Just ChatGPT it”  

I agree it’s unhelpful but it’s also possible the other person doesn’t know the answer/how to explain it or doesn’t have the time to help. 

[Xada 370]

It's generaly much more unhelpful then just replying "IDK"

If someone asks, it can be safely assumed that they already tried to look it up.

[ZiggWheelsManning 10,241]

"Just research it"  

I use it for advice on a video game boss  

[Rarity Gemstones 201]

On 2024-11-30 at 10:37 AM, Espy Vibe said:

@Rarity Gemstones Per asking other people for help: yes, it generally is. However, that's not the issue I'm bringing up here. It's very much the opposite when someone responds with "just google it" and makes it borderline troll behavior. It'd be more helpful to say "I don't know."

Here's an example that's based on why I made this thread:

 

In the example, I was "Person C" and, before I responded (while they were arguing!), I wanted to make sure there was actually a manual available so I can link the URL of the manual to the "Person A" and show them what to look for in the future without making them seem dumb. Just making it easy to find and follow for future reference next time, so they have some sort of direction. All I really needed was the model of the motherboard and to figure out what model computer it was to figure out what options were available for upgrades.

However, I found that it was not so simple and it required further research that would make a newcomer like Person A become overwhelmed. There were upgrade options available but it limited what exactly they can upgrade. They clearly were interested but needed guidance, which I was happy and able to provide, but now they are NOT interested because they got into an argument with someone who told them to "just google it" and it made them incredibly upset. I wouldn't be surprised if they say that people are gatekeeping or something like that because of their one experience. It makes me wonder if I or someone else who wouldn't argue with this person interacted with them first. Maybe they would still have some sort of interest still.

In other words, I kept my answer short and sweet for Person A, and Person B got the lengthy response from me. "Just google it? Ok, here is what happens when you 'just google it'. It's more complicated than you make it out to be and here's what I had to look for to figure that out. Did you even bother to look it up for yourself before telling this person to google it?"

Now that I think about it, at least when it comes to computers some of these manuals actually have issues. They're poorly translated (most of these parts are by Chinese and Taiwanese companies, so expect the usual weirdness), diagrams are sometimes poorly laid out, or they just leave stuff out. I've experienced all of these and have resorted to specific places that review these products in-depth in native English.

That's basically how my response went but less lengthy.

 

Hopefully that makes it easier to understand why it's actually VERY unhelpful and VERY rude. I've never seen any help being provided after someone mutters "just google it." It's always met with some sort of nastiness or trolling-esque behavior.

 

 

 

For both @Mothra and @Sparklefan1234: exactly! There's so many different situations as to why someone would ask. Google is not being helpful for them, so they ask people directly, but if those people are saying to look at Google then does anyone actually know anything??

More specifically for Sparklefan, sometimes it's best to take it into your own hands and figure out what to do. If you're going to be the one to figure something out, then you can share your results. The best presentation would be a video on youtube where you can share your journey to discovering what to do, people seem to really enjoy that format even if it's not something they would particularly be interested in. Well, that's if you're a great storyteller. I can't count the number of videos I've seen where it's the most mundane topic but it's presented in a video that makes it so interesting.

I've had a few times where I wanted to know something but didn't know what the answer was after much searching, so I just tried to figure it out myself and share the results. Not in a video format though, just replies on forums or something.

 

@Iforgotmybrain Yeah. These kinds of situations now make me summarize the relevant sections of the manual to people when I'm able to help.  If they're interested in learning more, they can use the link(s)/source(s) I placed to help them out with their understanding. It's the same with important videos, news, or whatever else would answer their questions.

Even I rarely ask others about technical stuff and resort to trying it out myself, googling terms and going through random results to figure out what to do if it's a more niche issue I'm having or something I'm exploring has little or no info about. All because I've experienced these bad interactions in the past.

"RTFM!!!" - Okay well I did but it's overwhelming and confusing for me.

"Then GOOGLE IT!!!" - Fine, I joined here to ask about what to do but if you're implying you don't know anything and want me to just google it, then I'll leave this community/hobby as quickly as I joined it.

"Why won't new people join this community/hobby???? We need new blood!!" - I dunno, if you can't figure that out then google it maybe? lol

Now that I think about it, this behavior seems to be abnormally present in anything that's very nerdy and technical. There's some exceptions of course.

I mispoke, my apologies.

I meant to say that telling someone to "just google it" is more or less someone is asking to come into the fold and showing genuine interest, and when you respond with "just google it", you're more or less being uninviting to said person.

[RDDash 19,172]

Microsoft Copilot or Google AI helps a lot to filter the answer for me, usually the first thing that comes out is Reddit or Quora link with the answer. As an answer "just Google it" is not helpful by itself. (Well yeah, but where is the answer?)

Edited December 3 by RDDash

[TheJollyofPones 2,377]

I think when it boils down to a specific situation it can be used correctly, like if someone is being purposefully dumb about a situation, I say "you can literally google this stuff man, don't be lazy"

When it's a topic I don't know? I just don't reply, simple as that.