On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 1:54 AM, Someone <[email protected]> wrote:
> How often does someone say, use Google to get the answer for your Linux > question? The suggestion isn't to use Yahoo, Dogpile, Bing, drop in > some other obscure search engine. The suggestion is to use Google as > if Google has become the defacto standard for answering Linux questions. > I think Google has become the defacto standard because hands-down they've the best search algorithm right now. Also, Google has a "Linux" specific search, www.google.com/linux. I went there and did a search on "Paris Hilton" thinking there wouldn't be any results. Boy was I wrong and I was surprised to learn that she release her own Linux distro called "Tinkerbell" http://www.bbspot.com/News/2006/08/paris-hilton-tinkerbell-linux.html > > The whole point of Linux mailing lists is that community is built up and > perhaps just perhaps, the question related to the question being asked > might get answered. By asking about serial ATA enclosures on a Linux > list I am asking beyond my question if external SATA is worth pursuing > on a Linux based system. > Sure, I think that's the whole point about mailing lists is that they consist of well informed, helpful, experienced, and often times very opinionated users who hopefully function as a community for the benefit of everyone involved. > > A search engine has a hard time answering a question behind a question > unless there is a valuable programmed in expectation. Search engines > are not intelligent and they never will be. Expectations can be > statistically helpful, but they do not always lead to presenting what > the researcher wants/needs. A human being with creativity has a much > better chance than a computer of making a useful presentation to > someone. A thing to be aware of is that Google has advertisers who pay > money which puts pressure on Google to produce hits for those > advertisers even if that is nonsensical. > Sure, a search engine is not itself intelligent. However, hopefully search engine algorithms are written by intelligent people. If the "semantic" web ever becomes a reality, search engines might be more adept at understanding what info us humans are truly looking for. I've toyed around w. a semantic desktop search app for Linux called Nepomuk. It's definitely an huge and intense undertaking, but it works and it's pretty neat... http://nepomuk.semanticdesktop.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main1/Project+Objectives _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
