If you’ve been listening to the show lately, you’ll have heard me exclaim that I was going to give up using Google for search for an entire week. So, I started yesterday - and it’s been a very painful experience thus far. Interesting, but painful. As I remarked in an earlier entry on the first day of Googlefasting, avoiding Google’s software is easy enough - but avoiding its search is like research suicide. For all the services that Google enables, 99% of what “we” use is its search engine. You don’t realize how often you use Google until you stop yourself from using it. Some might say I’m slapping Google in the face for doing this - but I’d argue the opposite. I’ve got a few more thoughts on today’s experience.

• Found myself saying “Google map it” to Jake when I realized that Ponzi no longer had a nav system in her car, and I needed to print directions to the Podcast Hotel.

• Needed to find the “Triple Door” in Seattle. Entered those keywords into Yahoo! and it suggested I also try “triple door seattle wa” - score one point for Yahoo! here. That’s what I needed and wanted. A subsequent click gave me even more of what I was looking for - address and map information.
• Had to look up a specific address that was listed as a new property for sale. Gave it to Yahoo! and was pleasantly surprised that it laid the map for me inline (although it was not interactive, which was slightly disappointing).
• Realized that Google Talk had launched and logged me in automatically on my laptop. Oops. Situation resolved - sorry for not being able to respond to any open conversations there.
• Was looking for a post I made on “Sacremende” (an inside joke for Arrested Development fans. I know I’m the #1 page for that keyword in Google, but a little lower in other engines. I’m not used to scrolling past the first 5-6 results.
• Realized that when I was looking for something and couldn’t find it after the second or third try, I gave up altogether. Either through the same search engine, or in trying multiple engines with the same term(s). My patience apparently wears out quickly. I believe I have more patience with Google because it usually treats me right by the third try.
• Learning that I often have to use more keywords in non-Google search engines to get the same results as I would get with less keywords in Google. This is not always the case (as evidenced by my “Triple Door” example), but it seems to be more of an issue when I’m looking for people’s names. Google seems to have their finger on the relevance pulse.
• The most frustrating part about this exorcism exercise is in knowing what it is I’m looking for and not being able to find it. Especially when I know that Google has it somewhere in the top ten.
• Sometimes it feels like I’m sleeping in someone else’s bed that was built to look like mine. Like I’m behind the wheel of a friend’s car, or that someone has adjusted my seat so that I’m not sitting at a comfortable or familiar angle. I’ve got Google on the brain, and feel like I want to switch back to it when I can’t find what it is I want through other engines.
• Fringe engines are frustrating. Ya know, the ones with the sidebar menus and drill-down taxonomy? They’re overwhelming, when all I wanna see on the page is some simple results. Google spoiled me.
• Haven’t given MSN a fair shake, largely because I’ve found their result algorithm to be a bit “all over the map” in the past. This is painfully apparent when I’m looking for help or assistance with a problem - or a question I need answered quickly.
• I’m going to do a better job at logging my search activities in the following days. Didn’t realize people would care so much about what I’ve decided to do.

Six more days to go. Six long days.

Tags: google, yahoo, research, search, search engine, msn, searching, fasting, googlefasting, ses