What is 'unGoogleable'? | Hacker News Reader

What is 'unGoogleable'?

bbc.co.uk

10 pointsschrofer8 comments

Bash's magic variables are pretty close to ungoogleable if you don't know they're called 'magic variables'.

I've always known them as environment variables.

No, I wouldn't say so. They're not that difficult to find results for. Especially if you wrap around as a string literal, e.g.

    bash "$DISPLAY"

$? $$ $! $_ ...

I had a tough time searching when I came across that for the first time. Then I searched for bin/sh.

I loathe it when people use "Google" as a synonym for "search". It's legitimate when you use to describe conducting a search using particularly Google, but as a synonym for "internet searching" it gives unnecessary focus on a single search engine, one backed by a company with questionable policies.

See also: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html (and particularly "Photoshop")

You're telling people to not use colloquialisms. I can understand the resistance to an extent, but it seems like not only an effort of glacier punching, but a refusal to accept a linguistic trend that has existed long before Google was doing questionable things.

Should we stop referring to adhesive bandages as Band-Aids? J&J has certainly made its share of controversial moves over the years.

Once upon a time "Escalator" was a trademarked brand name. Kleenex fought hard to retain it's trademark, and Coca-Cola lost the battle for the word "Cola", keeping only "Coke".

It happens. It's part of language. Over time, former brand names lose their significance and slowly slip into common use. That is a perfectly valid way for words to be coined, and probably is the most common way. That's how language works, and it seems that the word "Google" is going that way too.

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