With the entire internet at your fingertips...

[Sherlock]

Where is your first port of call when wanting to know something and why?

I ask as I see many general questions asked on here. I'm curious as I'm a bit of a geek and love researching stuff for myself I find the answers to most things asked here, (if I don't know them already) with a quick Google or Wikipedia search. I use either of these first as I find asking a forum often takes longer to get a reply than 5 minutes reading a few page returns.

I'm not talking pregnancy related stuff, but the other topics/subjects etc. This post is not a dig at anyone asking general questions. Just simply something I have gotten to wondering about and thought it would be good to see why we do what we do internet and computer wise. If anyone has ever given it any thought or noticed a pattern or trend.

I'm interested as to our internet and forum habits is all. I'm a long time computer, forum and chatroom user and wonder if thats got anything to do with the way I do things. I also run my own websites and so on. Does our level of computer use change our internet habits? With them? Make us more proactive or are we inclined to laziness the longer we spend online? Do we become complacent with what we know and forget to explore other possibles? Any other possibles?

Anyone want to ponder or discuss a little?

 

[Melly+2]

im just a lazy cow so i ask on here, let others do hard work for me

 

[kirlykird]

wikipedia because it's so clever and knows everything!!

If I'm looking for medical documents or research for my studies then it's Google scholar

I'm the same, I like to learn & like to be able to find my own answer

 

[Krystal]

I normally ask on here and use google, problem is so many answers on google it's hard to know what part is relevent so if i ask someone on here who may have personal experience of it then I think that is better.

I guess it depends what sort of thing I want to know.

 

[trixipaws]

lol i do them all

if i wanna kno something i post here, then in the mean time i open up wikipedia and google

depending on what the subject is, sometimes the post replies here help me quicker, other times the search is quicker but the replies are confirmation that the search isnt just a loada bollox!

so yes all of those for me

 

[SarahH]

lol i do them all

if i wanna kno something i post here, then in the mean time i open up wikipedia and google

depending on what the subject is, sometimes the post replies here help me quicker, other times the search is quicker but the replies are confirmation that the search isnt just a loada bollox!

so yes all of those for me

basically what she said

 

[kazlin]

I tend to use Wikipedia and so far it hasn't let me down. If I want to find out something about a film or someone famous I'll use IMDB (Internet Movie Database)

 

[NickyB]

I'm interested as to our internet and forum habits is all. I'm a long time computer, forum and chatroom user and wonder if thats got anything to do with the way I do things. I also run my own websites and so on. Does our level of computer use change our internet habits? With them? Make us more proactive or are we inclined to laziness the longer we spend online? Do we become complacent with what we know and forget to explore other possibles? Any other possibles?

Definitely, I consider myself net savvy, and am married to a webgeek. I've run forums and been visiting others for some time. I definitely notice a difference on other forums I use at the moment between people who are confident on the internet and those that aren't when it comes to asking questions. I mainly use another two car forums, one of those is full of very clever people, it's more engineering based, they're clever guys but don't know the net as well as others, lots of these types don't use the internet as fully as they could do, they would rather ask again something that has been covered than look for it. It only applies to a few to be fair, but I still think it's there.

 

[leckershell]

It depends on what I want to know to be honest. If it's something factual, google all the way. If it's something I need an opinion on, or something that I think a real woman would know the answer to then I ask on here. I don't have many friends that are girls, so if it's the sort of question I would have asked in the "common room" as it was called at 6th form, then it's the sort of question I would ask here. Often I will do both, to know that somebody I regularly read from, and I sort of know their history, has an answer. If that makes sense.

 

[meg_bellamy]

I always go to google if I want to know something

 

[kellie80]

I always google things first and if I don't get any luck I'll ask on here.

 

[Lou]

I generally ask on here mainly because more often than not I don't want a black and white answer, or a professional opinion. But like others have said it depends what I want to know. I must admit I have seen posts on this forum before when I've thought 'why aren't you talking to NHS direct?' but I don't mean that to be nasty, I mean Isaac had a rash the other day and I asked help on here to diagnose it so some members might have thought the same of me, but as it turned out someone found me an excellent link to a website that helped me out loads. Yes I could have found that link myself but I honestly value the opinions and advice of the girls on this forum.

As for things like products then peoples opinions and experiences are worth their weight in gold and can save us all time and money. With regards to all the silly stuff we ask I think its more often than not for a giggle and a chat more than anything

 

[glitzyglamgirl]

Interesting question!

Im like you Sherlock and have been using the net since it was first "invented".....I remember the days of major slow dial up, when it was considered savvy to "surf" (finding a web page and then using a link from there to go to another web page, and then another.....search engines were vague at best).

I remember a friend telling me "wow you can get recipes and all sorts on the internet and print them off!" and being very impressed I used to print off scripts for my favourite TV shows and thought I was so cool hehe

Me and my friend used to think it was hysterical to go into chat rooms and pretend to be different people But this was what.....nearly 16 years ago now!

I used to organise charity music events and decided to make my own web-page....there were no easy solutions back then like there is now and it all had to be written from scratch in html....man that was one steep learning curve but I done it!! Since then I have created many websites for bands and friends, and a fair few forums aswell, mainly for other people but a couple I have run myself with a friend.

So yeah, I consider myself pretty net savvy I love the internet!!!!!

I tend to use google for anything I need an answer to, and if that doesnt answer it I will use wikipedia.....though you need to bare in mind with wiki that it is written by the net users not professionals so its not always 100% accurate. I will ask on here if its for an opinion other than a fact, or something I am finding conflicting answers on, or if its something that can only be answered by the wealth of experience on here

 

[Misslarue]

I search for everything. I Normally find myself looking to find out about one thing and end up looking at loads of other stuff. I use google and wikipedia a lot, although before google I used to change my search engine regularly.
My OH is a complete computer geek and has been a computer programmer for over a decade and as I am a web/graphic designer computers play a large part in both our lives.

GGG.............I used to write all my sites in HTML back in the day, they looked terrible but I was so proud of them.
HTML tag list used to be my favorite site

 

[Tadpole]

I'm a Google Girl myself. I LOVE being able to find out anything I like. I can't think how I managed before it.

 

[Suzie and Faith]

for facts/info i use google/wiki but i like getting peoples opinions on things as people have had experience with certain things and i find that helps!

i.e. the bra thread in tri 3
research told me that underwired bras can cause problems
the forum told me that other people aren't bothering with un-wired because they are uncomfy

so from that i felt better about giving up on un-wired bras and going back to normal ones