How should we deal with Google questions?

Question

There have been a lot of questions that can be answered with a simple Google search.

For these questions, an answer can be found by just copying and pasting the question directly into the Google search field and scanning the first few hits.

Every new user wants to try out the feature and ask a question just to play around with the site. That's fine, and I don't mind it, but how will we deal with it in the long term?

I'm asking because all those trivial questions that can best be answered by

Tried www.google.com?

are the reason why I don't visit coding related Internet communities anymore.

Related
Embrace the non-Googlers

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Answer 1

Either don't answer it or give a correct answer. If the question is off topic on the specific site because it has other problems, you can flag it as such. But please do not comment or post answers like:

Tried www.google.com?

That is not acceptable on SE-sites.

Answer 2

Part of the thinking behind Stack Overflow was for those Google searches to link somewhere useful.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/09/15.html

By answering questions properly, instead of saying 'just Google it', you hopefully set up a definitive answer that Google will find for evermore.

Answer 3

The best programming ability I have is that my Google-fu is strong. Then again, I was trained on how to find the esoteric edge cases on the net when doing premier IT support - not everyone gets that kind of training.

If you want to really help with questions like this, post the answer you found and the Google search terms you used to find it.

Answer 4

The most annoying thing when googling about a specific question is when you end up in a forum where the exact same question is asked and all the answers goes like this;

"Have you googled it?", "Tried google?", "JFGI".

Always wanted to sign up to the random forum just to spam; "I just fracking googled it and ended up here..".

We should avoid the "google answer" at all cost if you ask me.

Answer 5

This question seems to be suggesting that Stack Overflow should only be used as a last resort - when an answer cannot be found elsewhere on the internet.

Surely this is the opposite of the site's intended purpose. I thought it was supposed to become the first place people would come for answers. To quote the FAQ,

No question is too trivial or too "newbie".

Answer 6

Everyone has their own reasons for being on SO, but the big three reasons are presumably (a) to learn something, (b) to teach something, or (c) to find out how to do something.

Answering a question directly can accomplish all three of these goals. A great way to learn something is to teach it, and if one doesn't know how to do it, they have to find out how to do it themselves first.

Answering a question with "search Google" also has its place, too. It probably indicates that the answer is easily found there. That teaches as well: it teaches people to fish rather than just handing them a fish.

SO has enough users that you'll get all sorts of questions and all sorts of responses. I'd think that really top-notch programmers will enjoy tackling the hard questions, and "advanced novice" programmers will answer the easier ones to gain traction.

And hearing, "You know, you should check Google first" is far more polite than you'd get some other places:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

So I guess just deal with Google questions however you feel is best, and learn from the community here what they think of your responses. You may learn that you're too harsh. You may learn that you're too easy. Or you may learn that you're just wasting your time and should spend time doing something else.

Answer 7

Part of the point of Stack Overflow is for people to search Google and find Stack Overflow. So it's still important to answer the question here (if it's not already answered). The goal is to have a site full of answers, and "Google it" is not an answer.

Answer 8

Help Vampires: A Spotter's Guide has some useful advice under the heading Reforming the Help Vampire. The first section #1: Creating Resources I think has already been done on Stack Overflow, but the other two sections: #2: Cease Enabling Behavior and #3: Meet Help Vampires Head-On is relevant to us.

Answer 9

The problem with googling a technical question is that often the results are to sites where you have to pay for information (i.e., Experts Exchange). I know not to even try to get information from any of those sites. They are basically commercials, and I'm not buying it.

Stack Exchange offers a free alternative. Hopefully as each community grows, the intended audience of each site will recognize the corresponding site; and when they see a result for that site and one for pay walled site, they will know to choose Stack Exchange site.

Answer 10

Post an answer, even if you directly copy from that first easy-to-find search result, for example:

"How do I delete the last index from a list, in Python?":

From http://docs.python.org/tutorial/datastructures.html#more-on-lists:

list.pop([i])

Remove the item at the given position in the list, and return it. If no index is specified, a.pop() removes and returns the last item in the list. (The square brackets around the i in the method signature denote that the parameter is optional, not that you should type square brackets at that position. You will see this notation frequently in the Python Library Reference.)

Or you can also use the del statement, by doing..

del mylist[-1]

Which would take less than a minute to write and post, and would be a useful answer.

If a question is easy to answer by a simple search, it's easy for you to answer (even if you copy/paste the important bit, and link to the page).. but more importantly, those answers "on Google" have to originate somewhere.. StackOverflow will be ranked highly on Google - if you post "Just Google it!"-like answers, those will end up being the "answers" people find!

Answer 11

The team has had a minor change of heart on this issue, and is currently testing out "general reference" as a close reason for questions that really can be answered just by punching a painfully obvious search term into Google and clicking "I'm Feeling Lucky." Its descriptive text:

general reference
This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information.

For now, it's only been deployed to a select few sites. I know English Language and Usage is one; I'm not sure what the others are. See this blog post for more.

EDIT
The "general reference" experiment is over, and the request to implement it network-wide is status-declined. See also SE podcast #20.

Answer 12

What's the difference between a person asking Google the question and asking StackOverflow the question? If you don't want to take the time to answer someone's trivial question, just don't answer it then. Right? I think the whole point (well, not the whole point but part of it) is that you can answer what you want and ignore what you want.

Answer 13

When I have a programming question, SO is my first stop. If I can't find it here, then I search for it. If you want to tell me where to look on google, that's fine, but I ask questions here for a reason. In the 10 - 12 months I've been here, I've only had to go somewhere else for the answer a handful of times. I heard of SO by reading Jeff Atwood's and Scott Hanselman's blogs, but I started using it when I googled about the build actions in .net project files. I did google it, and google led me here. 2.3 million results and the top one points to SO. Google and bing are great tools, but nothing beats a talented community of individuals that are willing to share their knowledge. And here I was able to find what I was really looking for: not just an answer, but the best way to apply that answer to my problem.

Something SO gives you that google can't is the polite debate amongst experts that applies context of the question. Sometimes it's not about finding the answer, but how you should apply the answer based on what you're trying to accomplish. A recent question I saw was about using Regular Expressions to replace parts of strings. There are tons of resources on Regex, and tons on replacements. I'm sure the person asking could have searched through all the results from google looking for the best answer, or he could come here get an explanation of why to do it this way instead of that way. And there's no reputation marker in google that would say to take the advice of this person named Jon Skeet over some random guy posting on his blog.

Answer 14

That's an easy one. Just down-vote the question and they eventually get pushed into oblivion.

BTW: I think you are right about people still testing out the site. I have posted a couple of questions that I could probably have Googled, but (1) I wanted to earn some reputation points so I could vote, and (2) I had been wanting to play around with some of the features of the site and posted a question or two more quickly than I ordinarily would on a discussion group.

Answer 15

Stackoverflow voting system already deals with this well.

When there are several choices of answers the best answers are being voted for. I have not seen one top voted answer that was:

Tried www.google.com?

This says to me that this is not a good answer.

Answer 16

I think that people should try and find the answer using existing resources before posting a new question.

While this might just mean a quick search through Stack Overflow and a visit to www.letmegooglethatforyou.com/, that is still much better than immediately posting questions without looking a bit on one's own.

It's not very efficient to be answering the same question over and over. Follow good netiquette and respect the time of others around you.

Answer 17

I think it is completely appropriate to tell someone that they could have easily solved an issue by checking google first - as long as you also give them the answer.

Answer 18

Personally I would agree in a lot of cases, however, I will also point out that it has become apparent to me that MANY people just do NOT know how to effectivly search google...

Answer 19

I wouldn't post try google.com.. If I am interested in helping someone I will do the search and actually find information relevant and link to those pages. If its that obvious that they should just go to google.. why bother wasting the time to type that?

Sometimes people do searches but still have trouble or they don't understand something. Google finds stuff.. but is the the right stuff?

I believe this site is about helping people. I would either help them as best I can or go on to the next question.

Answer 20

I hate the "You should do an internet search" answer to any question. It's the equivalent of saying "I'm not interested in wasting my time with you."

More important, and something to remember, not everyone has google-fu. Someone could spend hours looking for a TV show they vaguely remember and fail, because they don't think in a way that's conducive to quick effective search results.

Answer 21

Formulating a good query isn't trivial. Rather than just saying "RTFM", why not give a useful pointer like "Search Google for foo bar -baz"?

Of course, it's often nicer to just give them a direct answer but a Google pointer can be useful when the question is too broad or debated.

Answer 22

I recently joined the stack. Since then I've came across quite a few very interesting posts which actually referred to Google Searches and believe me, I've never came across them on Google. So, some may be more effective at searching and this site proves it.

Why re-invent the wheel anyway? The information is too much out there, it's time to organize it.

Answer 23

This comes up on so many sites, so it is finally good to address the issue. Google searching, is to some ability, a skill. Too often we assume that someone has not even tried Google or is too lazy when the problem is they have been entering in the incorrect query terms to find what they are looking for. In addition, knowing something about the question will lead to better success than someone who really has very little knowledge on what they are talking about. Often times, the user has an intuitive feel what they want but are unable to properly describe it with written language. Finally, since so much is written in English, our friends who do not natively speak English could have a much tougher time finding what they need if they are unable to represent what they are looking for properly. So please, for the sake of the Google-challenged have some compassion and demonstrate you expertise on the matter one more time. That being said, if the only way you were able to answer the question was to Google it, please do not answer the question.

Answer 24

Google-questions is not a problem. Google-answers are.

Either answer the question or just go away.

Before you answer a question, you should have at least some knowledge about or experience with the given topic.

Just because your google query results in 50000+ results, doesn't mean that an answer is found among them.

If you find a answer among them, give a link to the result that gives the answer, not the google query returning 50000 possible related topics.

Don't assume that the person asking have not tried google. See if maybe he want's something else than what your 50000-google-results gives.

Answer 25

Before I litter the comments any more, I'd just like to say:

1. Never just tell someone to google it. An answer telling someone to google will turn up in search results and hide an actual answer.

2. Never post a link to a search engine query. The chances of someone else getting the same results as you, especially after time has passed, are very slim indeed.

3. Unless you're using internal SO links, please summarise the contents of the target link, otherwise when the link inevitably dies away, the knowledge is lost (or at least hidden)

4. It usually takes fewer keystrokes to type "look at <Project HowToDoWhatever>" than it takes to type "You idiot, you could have googled this!"

I dread to think how many hours of my life I've wasted clicking through search results telling me to google the answer.

Anyway, my turn on the soapbox is over.

Answer 26

Let's face it. The answer for every single question not specific to this website IS out there. Whether on Google, in a library, someone's diary/personal notes, research documents, etc. That is not the point of any Question/Answer website. Using google is just one of the ways of finding an answer, as is asking a question here.

Just like it was said here before: Answer it, or let it be.

There is no reason to tell the person searching for an answer to go look elsewhere.

Answer 27

I realize that there are already a lot of answers on this thread stating exactly the same thing that I am about to, but for the purpose of showing support and spreading awareness that a great many people share the opinion I'm going to post anyways.

If someone comes to you and asks you a question that you have the knowledge required to answer than it is your duty to answer them. This is how humanity improves itself, it is how knowledge is shared, and the basis for which foundations are set upon which new knowledge may grow.

Each and every one of us started out knowing nothing. Through a painstaking process of endless questions we have gained all of the knowledge that we now possess. For each of the questions we have asked, we were forced to turn to someone else who had the knowledge; and for each answer received we depended on that person to answer regardless of how simple or absurd it might have seemed to them.

I think we should all look back on the questions that we have been forced to ask, and imagine where we would be now if each of the people we asked had scorned us for our lack of knowing rather than answering us. How much knowledge would we now have? What if this process happened to every person you have ever met? Where would we be as a society?

It's easy to take what you have learned and leverage it over another for the sake of your own ego. It's a trap that everyone has fallen into from time to time. I know that I too have done so more than once. But wisdom tempers knowledge over time and I came to realize how childish and ridiculous my attitude was.

For the obligatory tl;dr: Think twice about looking down your nose at someone who asks you a simple question, for most questions you will ever ask will be simple to the one you ask it of.