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How do people feel about posts that are easily found in google? (self.tipofmytongue)

submitted ago by WishiCouldRead

This is a super-friendly community, and I certainly don't want to discourage people from posting here. And obviously people are happy to help-- I know I get excited about helping someone to remember something from their past that's been bugging them, even if the ones I know have almost inevitably been answered.

But how do most people feel about questions that can be solved through a simple google search? A lot of times I plug a couple of key terms directly from the OP's post into google, and either the first or first several results are the correct answer. I know my google-fu isn't up to par at times, but sometimes I feel like a TOMT post comes before google.

How do people feel about TOMT being a google replacement, essentially?

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[–]SicTim 57 points58 points ago

TOMT is for when Google fails someone.

For example, Googling "that one movie I saw in 1990 with the giant robots that liked gefilte fish" isn't going to work out so well.

[–]Joe_Mama 58 points59 points ago

BTW, you're looking for Zion Giant. Great flick.

[–]shutta 16 points17 points ago

SOLVED

[–]RedditCommentAccount 13 points14 points ago

Exactly. I like to think my google-fu is pretty good, but sometimes you just need that set of eyes from the outside that use just the right set of terms to easily find it.

[–]WishiCouldRead[S] 8 points9 points ago

That's not what I asked. I asked about taking the OP not going to google first. A lot of times I'll take a couple terms from a post, stick it into google, and the first page of results are all the answer to the post. How do you feel about posters not going to google first?

And actually, if there was a movie that focused on gefilte fish, I'd be willing to bet it'd pop up in google.

[–]SicTim 28 points29 points ago

I asked about taking the OP not going to google first.

Ah, sorry. In those instances, the post usually gets a green check quickly -- a lot of people (including myself) love jumping in and getting them right. I don't think the low-hanging fruit bothers many people.

And actually, if there was a movie that focused on gefilte fish, I'd be willing to bet it'd pop up in google.

And someone would post a link to Kosher Robot Battle Force very quickly.

[–]mescad 21 points22 points ago

I see both sides, but I think I'm going to agree with SicTim here. It's an amazing feeling when you help solve a "[TOMT] That song with a guy in the video for 3 seconds with brown hair?" seemingly impossible question, but the low hanging fruit are a great way for newbies to get started, and for bored geniuses to reinforce our worldview. Easy tasks help form community by including more people.

Googleable questions would be annoying if they were overwhelming the more interesting stuff. For now, with about 100 posts a day here, because we have the checkmarks, and because of the newbie factor, I think the signal to noise ratio is acceptable.

Another aspect of this issue is that some of us have a lot better google fu than others. When you see "What's that movie with the kid with no hair, who in one scene wears clothes that look like Michael Jackson??" (Answer: Powder, seen here wearing a fedora) you would immediately search for "movie with kid with no hair" but someone who gets caught up on the MJ lookalike comparison could spend days looking for "kid who looks like Michael Jackson" in Google and never find it. Sometimes it just takes another set if eyes looking at your problem. I have almost submitted a TOMT twice where, after typing out the description I noticed that I included details that I hadn't previous searched in Google. In both cases I tweaked my search and immediately found it. Others might not take that extra step. We can help train them to do so by telling HOW we found the answers so quickly.

[–]mcaustic 4 points5 points ago

This is very true. Often, posting a TOMT forces one to include details that may have been overlooked.

[–]WishiCouldRead[S] 2 points3 points ago

When you see "What's that movie with the kid with no hair, who in one scene wears clothes that look like Michael Jackson??" (Answer: Powder, seen [1] here wearing a fedora) you would immediately search for "movie with kid with no hair" but someone who gets caught up on the MJ lookalike comparison could spend days looking for "kid who looks like Michael Jackson" in Google and never find it.

That's very true. I never thought about it like that. Sometimes the posts are so obvious, though, that even someone with no google skills can find it. But your point about signal to noise ratio being acceptable is true. TOMT doesn't feel like a google replacement, so I guess there's not really a problem. Yet. :)

[–]ghostofmybrain 16 points17 points ago

Some people just aren't good at picking out the correct keywords. It's awesome that you can find it out quickly, but that certainly doesn't mean I can.

[–]ShakeyBobWillis 4 points5 points ago

But what he's talking about is using words the TOMT poster has already used themselves in the title of their post. Meaning it's clear they never bothered to Google up that very same thing. If I can simply copy and paste word for word the information you've just put in your post and find your answer on the first page it means you didn't bother to Google it at all.

[–]MegainPhoto 0 points1 point ago

I've actually solved a couple of TOMTs by doing nothing more than highlighting the headline, right-clicking and Google searching for the headline.

[–]ShakeyBobWillis 0 points1 point ago

Yeah that's the type of nonsense that could get curtailed a bit. Becasue if you can do that, it's clear the other person never bothered to Google at all.

[–]The_Reckoning 1 point2 points ago

I can't speak to whether those types of posts make up a substantial percentage of the total, but the ones I've commented on have always been quite challenging to track down.

That said, I think it would be better to just let the "easier" posts get green-checked faster than to give posters a hard time about not googling first. Plus, keep in mind that some people have better google-fu than others.

[–]RichardBachman 1 point2 points ago

You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to do the google.

I try to give them a little tip for the next time they're searching for something if it's glaringly obvious.

[–]TheJulie 0 points1 point ago

There have been times when I have just copied the title of the post and stuck it in Google, and there was the answer. I like TOMT, I love trying to help, but to me it's a little frustrating and lazy to not even try to Google your answer first.

[–]mrpopenfresh 1 point2 points ago

That sound like a good movie. Are there any boobs?

[–]SicTim 4 points5 points ago

For that you need to see Shiksa 3D.

[–]ShakeyBobWillis 0 points1 point ago

I think he's talking about the more generic ones where it's (as a generic example) "TOMT a movie about a pig named babe". Wherein you could just google "Movie about a pig named Babe" and get your answer.

[–]ihithim 11 points12 points ago

I worry about other things.

[–]guyanonymous 10 points11 points ago

I don't think most people use TOMT as a google replacement; they use it to help them when either their ability to come up with the correct search terms, their time to research, or their desire for discussion come into play.

I've encountered instances here (and elsewhere) where I've been unable to find something, and someone else provided search terms I'd not thought about (or stupidly not considered) that led to me desired result and I've found some where adding/removing/changing a single word makes a huge difference.

Sometimes these are regional/cultural/generational language differences.

A simple example is the term "shrinky dink". That refers to what's now called shrink plastic sheets (or something like that), while I have only ever used the term shrinky dink to refer to that material (the branding on the product I grew up using in the 70's and 80's). When I sought out this product a few years back, it was a pain to track down at first until I started searching for "shrink plastic" or something like that. Similarly, people today might see it on the shelf labelled under another brand and/or generic name and recall their childhood use of it - but be unable to come up with the term "shrinky dink" to find images of the boxed products they had as a child.

One's ability to use google (or any other search tool) isn't necessarily as awesome as your own might be (you being generic here). I've been doing internet stuff, computer stuff, etc, for 30+ years, but only recently learned about the ~ feature of google (searching for ~hot actually searches for words similar to and including the word "hot" if I understand correctly); I'm sure even more people don't know how to exclude things from their searches either.

I'd chill out and accept that it's easy for you to skip threads you don't want to bother with, and at worst know that you only wasted a few seconds; and best case - if you know the answer tell it, and then educate someone on how to better research it in the future.

[–][deleted] 26 points27 points ago

I get a little angry when I ask somebody a question, and they suggest Google as a replacement, yet they know the answer. I realize Google can answer a question, but sometimes I'm looking for some human interaction and discussion as well.

[–]WishiCouldRead[S] 9 points10 points ago

But can't that be found through other subreddits? Like you find a movie or song or whatever that you've been trying to remember, and then you post it to /r/nostalgia or /r/music or /r/movies and get a discussion started there-- wouldn't the subreddits specifically made for whatever genre be more likely to foster discussion than one dedicated to providing a factual answer to a question?

[–]guyanonymous 6 points7 points ago*

I think most people who know what the object of their search is, already go there rather than search in TOMT. Those places tend to send requests to TOMT or at least suggest it for future use rather than asking the questions of "does anyone remember..." in my limited experience of asking.

[–]srsbsnsman 6 points7 points ago

I can definitely see this as a future problem, and if the mods want to remove these kinds of posts they'd have my full support, but as of now I don't see it as a significant problem.

[–]mbd34 5 points6 points ago

When it comes to song lyric questions, and the OP is not remembering wrong, either the answer is easily found in google or the OP is out of luck. When a song is too obscure for google, or was written specifically for a commercial or some such, it is near impossible to find anything more about it.

[–]w4rfr05t 10 points11 points ago

I prefer this to Google because while Google might give you the answer you're looking for, oftentimes in trying to answer a question and reading through others' answers I'll learn about a similar [whatever] I wasn't aware of.

It's more than just helping others, it's also helping oneself to new things at the same time.

[–]mescad 12 points13 points ago*

My favorite are when the description is COMPLETELY wrong and we find it anyway. Usually those posts generate a lot of interesting other song\movie\book titles that nobody would ever think to recommend.

If we truly were strict about this, we'd say "Okay yeah it was Jurassic Park. Let's take this discussion over to /r/movies and talk about our favorite scenes and other actors from it." Reddit doesn't really work that way, usually.

[–]WishiCouldRead[S] 2 points3 points ago

Hm, that's a good point. The "maybe it's this whatever that you're thinking of" can lead you to find out more about what you're interested in than just the single answer to your question. Still, wouldn't more specific other subreddits be able to do that as well?

[–]w4rfr05t 11 points12 points ago

Sure, but at the risk of annoying members of those subreddits. Such questions would arguably be on-topic there, in a general sense, but you'd be a lot more likely to incur a LMGTFY response than you would here, in a subreddit designed for it.

Is it lazy? Maybe. But then again, no one's forcing us to answer. We do it because we like the chase, or because helping makes us feel useful, or because we're know-it-alls who like to flex our big throbbing brains for the ladies.

Or all of the above.

[–]V2Blast 4 points5 points ago

Finding other things you might like is what /r/ifyoulikeblank is for.

[–]w4rfr05t 2 points3 points ago

Cool, I wasn't aware of that one. Subscribed, and thank you!

[–]V2Blast 1 point2 points ago

No problem :)

[–]V2Blast 1 point2 points ago

Specifically: /r/ifyoulikeblank

[–]V2Blast 3 points4 points ago

/r/ifyoulikeblank

[–]poloxamer 4 points5 points ago

What may be easy for you isn't necessarily easy for other people. It's sad that some people don't know how to get the most out of a search engine. It seems like it should be pretty common knowledge, but it isn't. I don't downvote them. I don't try to make them feel like an idiot. I just answer their question. What DOES irritate me is when people don't reply to their solved problem with the word 'SOLVED' per the instructions that are literally all over the web page.

[–]ShakeyBobWillis 1 point2 points ago

But in cases like they point out, some questions can be found simply by googling exactly what the poster put in the title. You don't need to be a search engine master to put your own exact words into google.

[–]megret 1 point2 points ago

Agreed on all this. My grandma was a librarian, and she taught me how to look up stuff in the card catalog (it's something old people used to look up info in a library, kids) using key words. Out in the real world, I'm still surprised that grown people don't know how to use the index in a book or manual, and can't identify what parts of their question are key words and what parts are just superfluous.

Some people learned how to look stuff up when they were in school. Some didn't. Some haven't gotten to that class with those research papers where this skill is learned. No biggie, and I'm happy to help, but don't make me wade through google for something that's already been solved!

[–]dystopialost 3 points4 points ago

I'm going to throw my two cents in even though I'm a relative newbie to the community. In the best of all possible worlds, a google search would come first but I don't really have a problem pointing people in the right direction for easier questions if I happen across one that hasn't been solved yet. They're marked as solved quick enough and they sometimes remind me of movies/songs/etc that I haven't thought of in a while.

[–]Gemini6Ice 7 points8 points ago

I downvote them. If I can google the TOMT title and get an answer in the first five responses, I include a link and downvote.

[–]ShakeyBobWillis 2 points3 points ago

I have a bigger problem where it's not "TOMT" but simply, "I know exactly what it is I just can't find it myself" posts. You want an animated gif you just saw on Reddit two days ago? Post somewhere else.

[–]Z0bie 0 points1 point ago

/r/yester

[–]ShakeyBobWillis 0 points1 point ago

Yeah that's the one. I couldn't remember it.

[–]baudvine 0 points1 point ago

We have a sidebar for a reason -> ;)

[–]ShakeyBobWillis 0 points1 point ago

Hahah. Indeed. I'm horrible at missing things right on the page.

[–]WishiCouldRead[S] 3 points4 points ago

Somehow this submission has a green check next to it, despite a lack of a post containing the magic word from the OP.

ಠ_ಠ

[–]teraflop 10 points11 points ago

But how do most people feel about questions that can be solved

That'll do it. Unfortunately the bot can't tell whether a word was originally in the post or was added later.

[–]bwatur 2 points3 points ago

Even though i havent found many TOMT''s i read this subreddit just to discover new things although some of the posts do seem way to easy to find. It's almost as if the posters were just trying to do a 'does anyone else remember this cool movie/book/whatever' They don't add a whole lot to the subreddit since they're immediately solved and checked and everyone moves on.

[–]grumpypants_mcnallen 1 point2 points ago

We've grown a lot. I predict that eventually upvote/downvoting will take care of most people not noticing those posts.

It's often small things that the OP get's wrong, but absolutely thinks are key to their searches. An example was a recent post about a time travel sci-fi, which was actually travel to another dimension. The OP tried looking for all time-travel movies he could find, but to no avail.

[–]smooshie 0 points1 point ago

Hmm, good points. When I solve a TOMT using Google, I'll try to post the search keywords along with the answer, that way the questioner'll get the answer, and a method of getting at it, without it being (I hope) too condescending.

[–]aroomacanvas 1 point2 points ago

I'm not going to get mad at someone for posting something that's easy to find, but I believe that the point of this subreddit is for when google can't help you. I only post a question on here when I can't find it after a bit of searching, but that's just me.

[–]PoisonousGirl 1 point2 points ago

I spent a solid hour rephrasing my search for this site that is black and red and has animated black and white (with a bit of red) shorts about little girls (one was about a girl named Emily who took over the world with toys). I posted it on TOMT and someone gave me the website in like 10 minutes. So yes, this is a definite at the end of my wits subreddit. Thank you for existing TOMT! :D

[–]jooes 0 points1 point ago

I think you should at least try, but sometimes people just aren't searching exactly the right thing. Something that might be super simple to me to find, might be impossible for you because you just aren't looking for the right thing...

[–]jayknow05 1 point2 points ago

I don't give a shit. I don't actively browse this subreddit, so I only see the popular ones which tend to be awesome even if they are google-able. However, this type of "what should this subreddit be about" post hits my frontpage daily from at least one subreddit. That's a larger problem than slightly inappropriate but still interesting posts.

[–]FrankZilla 0 points1 point ago

5 year olds can't Google.

[–]giant_novelty_finger 1 point2 points ago

I'm not currently seeing people fill TOMT with easy questions. Easy questions are jumped on with answers, and it's still a signal that people really want to know about something. They come, are answered, and disappear.

[–]mulberrybushes 0 points1 point ago

The bigger Reddit grows, the less computer-friendly the users become. I'm fine with it. If I can explain to the user how I got to the search and teach them a little bit about internet research, maybe the next time they won't be as dumb

[–]Lambocoon 0 points1 point ago

i ain't even mad

[–]mrpopenfresh -1 points0 points ago

What irks me from tip of my tongue is that hardly anythign is really on the tip of your tongue. Also, when people ask for a recent reddit post. I get that it isn't easy to backtrace on this site, but is it really tip of your tongue?

[–]V2Blast 2 points3 points ago

Recent reddit posts go in /r/yester :)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

it's incredibly tiresome to hear the response, "just google it" so often.

look, i'll be honest, and i'll get downvoted to hell for it. the reddit codebase is a giant pile. the interface is awkward, the maintainers don't update it, and rely on 3rd party tools to provide a fill-in solution. there's been bugs that have been around for years, and feature-requests that have never been fulfilled. basically, the only thing that this place has going for it is that it stays the fuck out of the way of its participants, and lets them construct their own communities.

so, if anyone is still reading this at this point, the weaknesses i pointed to above should actually be considered to be strengths. the interface is sparse; that's awesome. there's no insufferable push to "web 2.0" whatever or "social" horseshit anything. it just is. and that's why, inexplicably, a buggy as hell website has somehow managed to be one of the biggest juggernauts on the web.

long ramble short, the point is ... saying something like, "just google it" totally destroys the whole point of reddit. if people were capabable of, or wanted to, just google something, they would have in the first place. that's really not why we all spend so much time around here.

it's the community, and as such, these admonitions that, "you know, you could have looked this up on google yourself easily" are completely absurd. if you didn't want to interact with people in the first place, why would you even be reading the question/thread at all? why even respond at all?

that's all, rant off, everyone please feel free to downvote this.

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