FTW!

February 8, 2009 7:11 PM

My hat is forever off to Nanojath for his amazing answer to my now-resolved question from December. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, you are the king of google-fu.

I read this when I was a camper at Camp Unalayee and I was totally blown away. I am really glad to find the title of this book. Thank you, Nanojath!

posted by parmanparman to MetaFilter-related at 7:11 PM (42 comments total)

Now I'm embarrassed. But it was a good bit of Google if I do say so. And it just goes to show that automatically scorning the Google-only AskMe answer isn't always fair, harumph, harumph.

My personal favorite remains this one solved by the collective Googling of three otherwise unconnected people. Now everyone can go back to talking about how great I am.
posted by nanojath at 7:22 PM on February 8

*raises champagne flute*
posted by hermitosis at 7:23 PM on February 8

Dave Hill: The King of Google.
Barack Obama: The King of Google
Orlando Bloom: The King of Google

See also ; An audience with the King of Google.
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:23 PM on February 8

If you want to crown nanojath, you'll have to commit regicide.
I acknowledge only Averyoldworld as Google King and give him my fealty.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:35 PM on February 8 [1 favorite]

That was a good one, Fiasco da Gama. It's always funny what vagaries of phrasing cracks the code. I do like the fact that answering parmanparman's question involved spotting a tiny scrap of a scholarly article entitled "Socio-cultural representations of the vagina." Maybe I'm an Earl of Google.
posted by nanojath at 7:47 PM on February 8

At the risk of sounding like Captain No-Fun McWetBlanket, the first Google result for "anti-rape" "soldiers" and "viet nam" leads the way (It was my third search after "viet nam war" "vagina" "rape" and "viet nam" "vagina" "soldier", using the AskMe description).

But all in all, nanojath is a pretty swell guy.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:49 PM on February 8

So what is the key to a successful Google search? Is it to be more specific or more general? Is it to triangulate? I have found stuff that I could not believe was out there, but I have also failed to find stuff that I know exists on the internets somewhere.

Nanojath, any pointers for an amateur like me?
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:57 PM on February 8

Nanojath, I'll be fair, and petition my liege to make you 1st Viscount of AltaVista.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:59 PM on February 8 [1 favorite]

Man, he really Googled the shit out of it.
posted by turgid dahlia at 7:59 PM on February 8

So what is the key to a successful Google search?

I wouldn't say I'm in nanojath territory, but honestly, I'm by far the best Googler I know personally, and I always start with the "I'm-not-afraid-to-enter-a-stupid-query" query.

Them: "I'm looking for a short story about a girl who ran the Boston Marathon backward in 1968."

I Google: "short story girl ran run backward Boston Marathon 1968."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:22 PM on February 8

Oh fuck not a- one second, lemme get my robe and hat

*huff*

Okay, someone burn the incense and I'll kill this calf. We gotta do it before the moon falls.
posted by The Whelk at 8:28 PM on February 8

Cool Papa Bell, that reminds me of when I used to teach elderly people how to use the Internet at a library a few years back. It would absolutely blow their minds that when I showed them that you can search for a bunch of keywords and it actually worked better than, for something like this "short stories."
posted by synecdoche at 8:33 PM on February 8

any pointers for an amateur like me?

Google Guide, Books about how to construct search strings, [obligatory suggestion to use resources other than Google]
posted by MLIS at 9:11 PM on February 8 [10 favorites]

If the obvious Googling methods fail me, I like to think of what unrelated words might be in an accompanying description of the thing I'm looking for. Usually I do this to separate reviews or discussion of a product from sites trying to sell me it: "canon s5 -buy +impressive", or something.
posted by jinjo at 9:56 PM on February 8

Example: For a question about Industry research reports, here is a Google search string I put together.
posted by MLIS at 9:59 PM on February 8

Is it to triangulate?

It is to triangulate.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:05 PM on February 8

I would like to be the substitute king of google.
posted by felix betachat at 10:07 PM on February 8

He's the king of Google
There is none higher
He gets five thousand ghits
off "the word quagmire"
posted by cortex at 10:18 PM on February 8 [6 favorites]

So how many entries of a google search are worth looking at before you refine your search criteria? Is anyone checking out the 17th page of hits?
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 10:19 PM on February 8

My favorite ways to get rid of useless info in google search are:

Quote marks "this will wendell"
Site specific searches - chicken penis Jessamyn site:metatalk.metafilter.com
Minus sign to remove irrelevant info: -Obama hope twelve step
When I want factual info, not a bunch of ads - I use .edu or .gov only searchs - site:gov unemployment Portland
When I am completely overrun with useless info, I search for office docs or pdfs with the file type modifer - filetype:pdf Webster's Dictionary (this method is great for finding books that folks have converted to pdfs)
posted by bigmusic at 11:02 PM on February 8 [3 favorites]

I heard that the undisputed king of Yahoo! wears a crown of emoticons.
posted by clearly at 11:42 PM on February 8

I'm just a faceless peon under the tyranny of Baidu :(
posted by Abiezer at 12:25 AM on February 9

But who is the First Lord of Hotbot?
posted by ClanvidHorse at 1:07 AM on February 9

The Marquis of Mamma?
posted by soundofsuburbia at 1:35 AM on February 9

Good job nanojath. And damn me and my crappy memory.
posted by cashman at 5:13 AM on February 9

One of my secret weapons is to imagine a phrase that the page I'm looking for would have, and do a quote-based search for it.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:09 AM on February 9

At the risk of sounding like Captain No-Fun McWetBlanket, the first Google result for "anti-rape" "soldiers" and "viet nam" leads the way (It was my third search after "viet nam war" "vagina" "rape" and "viet nam" "vagina" "soldier", using the AskMe description).

Sure, but the term "anti-rape" was not in the actual question, nor was there any indication that the weapon was meant to be anti-rape. When I read the question, I assumed that the weapon was intended so that women sought out sexual partners to kill in this way. This is a bit like saying "It was the first google hit for Lincoln-Pruitt, so it wasn't that hard."
posted by arcticwoman at 9:35 AM on February 9

At the risk of sounding like Captain No-Fun McWetBlanket, the first Google result for "anti-rape" "soldiers" and "viet nam" leads the way (It was my third search after "viet nam war" "vagina" "rape" and "viet nam" "vagina" "soldier", using the AskMe description).

Actually, your comment is the first Google result for that search!

As I noted elsewhere, "anti-rape" is indeed the critical keyword for this search, because it is in the title of the story and because it screens out extraneous results that come out going with the more pedantic "vagina dentata."

I can definitely see someone coming up with that phrase (especially considering this well-publicized phenomenon) without going through the circuitous route I did.

But you didn't, did you? Huh? Did you? Mr. Smarty Pants? Johnny Mootpoint? No, you just looked at the thread, and my answer (which conveniently contains the title of the story), and then decided you would have thought to use that phrase in your search if you had just got there first.
posted by nanojath at 9:48 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]

This is a bit like saying "It was the first google hit for Lincoln-Pruitt, so it wasn't that hard."

I didn't look at the answer before googling, I used the content of the question; the machine reminded me of YT's dentata from Snow Crash, which put me on the rape track.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:53 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]

So nyer! nyer! to the both of y'all!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:55 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]

1st Viscount of AltaVista.

Dominion over the lost continent of AltaVista is a dubious honor. For the benefit of the kids maybe someone should briefly cover the history of search engines, so the early twenties set know what we're talking about.

Gather around, children, and let me tell you of a dark age, when to find something on the internet you might well find yourself going to a place called... BUM BUM BUM.... WEBCRAWLER BY AOL!
posted by nanojath at 9:56 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]

Yeah, and your user name is now associated with the phrase "put me on the rape track."
posted by nanojath at 9:57 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]

If only that was the most awkward phrase my name was associated with.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:59 AM on February 9

embarrassing days
with an awkward search phrase
"on the rape track"

better yet
do a POST not a GET for your
"on the rape track"
posted by cortex at 10:09 AM on February 9

For the benefit of the kids maybe someone should briefly cover the history of search engines, so the early twenties set know what we're talking about.

My brief version:

In the beginning there was WebCrawler and Lycos. They both sucked, and you were more likely to find random crap in the first page of results as you were to find what you were actually looking for. Yahoo! also existed back then, but it was a web directory rather than a full web search. Then AltaVista came out. It had powerful search operators and a good index, making it the one to beat as more and more startups entered the fray.

Magellan, Excite, HotBot, and Northern Light all came out and were okay. For a while you could use the same search terms at each one and get wildy different results, and Dogpile automated that method. Ask Jeeves tried to capture the lucrative "people who don't understand computers" market by letting users type in questions rather than constructing proper search terms.

Then Google launched and blew everyone else out of the water. Aside from PageRank, one of the killer features was the addition of cached versions of pages, because broken links in search engine results used to be a big problem back then. Also, during the implosion of the whole tech industry when the bubble burst, most of Google's competitors either shut down or came up with schemes to mix paid-for results into the normal search results, so for a while Google was the only place to get actual relevant search results.
posted by burnmp3s at 11:08 AM on February 9

better yet/do a POST not a GET for your

Hooray, Guided by Voices!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 11:32 AM on February 9

I'm sure I heard "A Visit from the Footbinder" as a radio play on BBC Radio 4 years ago. Kind of thing you don't forget...
posted by alasdair at 12:53 PM on February 9

I think the best title would probably be Duke of URL.
posted by GrammarMoses at 1:02 PM on February 9 [7 favorites]

In the beginning was Gopher.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:53 PM on February 9

In the beginning was Archie, Gopher came two years later.
posted by BrotherCaine at 4:52 AM on February 10

Oooh, that's right!

Man, what a long, long time ago...
posted by five fresh fish at 7:01 AM on February 10

I wouldn't say I'm in nanojath territory, but honestly, I'm by far the best Googler I know personally, and I always start with the "I'm-not-afraid-to-enter-a-stupid-query" query.

Same here. I'm not up to this standard:

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +size +(mp3|aac) "replace me with artist or name of song"

WOAH! [VIA LIFEHACKER.COM] But it makes me want to hurt people when I hear "how did you find that you have too much tiiiiiiiime on your haaands."

"No I don't, actually. It's not that hard to find an animated gif of Tom Cruise electrocuting Oprah. In fact, it took me less than 30 seconds and I got it first try so quit it with your stupid comments and the implied snark that goes with it."

/rant
posted by uncanny hengeman at 7:14 PM on February 10 [1 favorite]