Ask HN: is anyone else burnt out googling? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: is anyone else burnt out googling?

10 pointsresdirector8 comments

Something snapped today. I went to google pre-paid cell phones, and I couldn't do it. I couldn't type ctrl-t...the thought of typing the search query into the chrome bar, and clicking on the resulting links made me seize up. Instead I found a friend of mine and asked her (with an apology that I'm burnt out googling). I'm finding I'm doing that more and more these days.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of "google burnt out"? If so, what did you do? EDIT: And how many google searches do you do a day? I do about ~100 according to my google web history.

View on HN

I can honestly say that this is a new one. That said, the very idea of being literally incapable of taking five seconds to look something up, and instead taking five minutes to find it out from someone else, is abhorrent to me.

I think it's the culmination of lots of five-seconds. I probably do about ~100 google searches a day and I think my brain has given up and said "no more".

On the flip-side, I kind of enjoy asking a friend: less impersonal, less lonely.

I'll ask a friend if I think it's something they'll enjoy talking about.

I have quite a wide range - 50 to about 180 a day depending on the day of the week. I don't have a problem with the process of Googling but I do have a problem with some of the results for particular queries. Obviously it's better to use Wolfram Alpha or DDG etc. for more specific queries but the cognitive strain of having to allocate a search engine to a type of search is overwhelming or just too much of a time resource (especially if you search across a multitude of topics).

I find the prospect of wading through search engine spam quite off-putting at times. Trying to find genuinely interesting pages about some products and services can be a painful or nigh infuriating process when the first few search result pages are filled with links to price comparison sites or worse, holding page sites with nothing but adverts. There have been times where instead of pursuing something I've been interested in, I've given up and done something else.

According to my search history, I am getting in the range of 70-100 a day, and I am nowhere close to being burned out, and I don't see that happening anytime soon. Having information literal seconds away (by using the same method you described above) is too much for me to give up. If someone asks me a question, "Google it" is usually my response.

I've actually started using a VA to 'google' for me, although the tasks I give him are more 'research' than a dumb 'google'. One of the interesting side-effects is that I get results I don't expect because he doesn't have the early adopter bias I have: when I ask to research e.g. a market or software options he'll come up with things I'd never consider. I still have to fine-tune the results but it's certainly a time-saver.

I do find myself getting frustrated with some of the search results. However, there is really no other option. 'Up and coming' search engines like DDG are good, but only for certain search types.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com