How everyone flies to Google for verification, justification and clarification

[Alan]

Hi,

Interesting how everyone flies to Google for verification, justification and clarification. What does it signify? Just for a laugh I put in: Gawd help us! and clocked up close on 80,000. So what? It's all too Gadarene swine-like for me.

Incidentally many of the 'hits' on Mother Google are repeated time and time again and so you don't get a true picture anyhow if, that is, you get a picture at all.

A
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English as a Second Language
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[Tamara]

Hi Alan,

Having seen the general 'counter' for an expressing googled (and previously 'dictionaried' :)), I usually examine the first page (or, sometimes, the first two pages) of the given links more closely to determine of which origin the sites are (and to make judgement about the level of their ‘authority’ for me, subjectively).
And to see contexts in which the expression was really used.
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[Conchita]

Whether for good or bad, I must say Google is one of my closest allies -- I consider it practically indispensable, to the point that I would feel really handicapped without it now!

[Alan]

Just come across the following in some instructions for using an electric toothbrush:

After 3 minutes your Phaser timer will of ended ...

Well, did you ever?

Put that in your Google pipe and smoke it.

A
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You can read my EFL story Progressive Forms

[Torsten]

Hi Alan,

If you google that phrase there are no results (if you put the phrase in quotation marks which means you are checking how often that exact phrase appears on the Internet).

TOEIC listening, question-response: Has everyone decided what they'd like for their main dish?

[Yankee]

[Torsten]

As usual, Alan has raised an interesting question and I very much agree with what Amy says. I also think that it is important to point out, that although we might be using Google, we try to access as many different resources as possible to find out how often a certain phrase is used. In other words, Google provides us with the tools to analyze documents. Google itself doesn't create that much content. As Amy said, using Google the right way can require some training. I've come across a website called GoogleGuide and it shows How to interpret Google search queries.

TOEIC listening, question-response: Do you think I should see a doctor for this problem?