Brain check people?

Question

Why do people ask questions that are either obvious, or easily found simply by visiting Google? The level of stupidity found in some questions is shocking. I mean, funny as hell, yes, but shocking given most are actually serious. Gawd!

Answer 1

Some people are lonely and by asking questions, they find a way to connect to others. Are you lonely, Bradster?

Answer 2

People who get on this site have varying degrees of web expertise and research skills, or are just intimidated by computers. I sometimes feel that there are stupid or lazy people out there. But I try to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they and others can learn from my help. I usually put in a source.

Some people have difficulty with the words that they may find on a source. If it is medically related, I try to simplify things. I am an RN.

I do draw the line at answering obvious homework questions, but I may give a hint.

Answer 3

Spam pages, mainly. It's sad but true.

Google and other web sites have a *limit* on how many terms you may add to or subtract from a search. Google tells you up front it's *ten total* terms, including quoted things in "quotes". Yahoo works differently, if you try to go beyond five or six terms, it will generally *give up* and refer you to the "no results" screen. Your mileage may vary on other general-purpose, non-smart search engines. There are some special-purpose smart search engines that can eliminate non-relevant results within a range of topics, but they can only do so much.

But I digress. Point is....even on Google, you can't *possibly* try to *create* a search on some things that will *exclude* enough spam results to get you relevant info. It doesn't work, there are spam pages deliberately *designed* to snag as many first-page results as possible, by creating links using phrases like "The ____", "the Best of ____", or "Basic _____". Fill in the blank with any word or phrase you like, it usually won't matter as these spam pages will have *hundreds* of entries there, repeating dozens of times each, just to snage top-page honors on your search. And all of these "links" at the spam pages lead to the same places usually....you know the type, the ones that want to take over your mailbox and/or computer, by fair means or foul.

And this assumes that a) you *KNOW* how to use a Search Engine, and that b) you *KNOW* how to *SPELL* your Search Terms. O_O

Have you seen the bulk of the "Questions" here? Have you seen how poor the "spelling" is, or how incoherently the grammar parses? I'm not trying to be mean here--there's a lot of school kids here, and they are clearly *NOT* getting a proper education at school--but the truth is, a lot of folks here on Answers just wouldn't be able to *Use* Google and the like and have *Any* hope of getting meaningful results.

And forget Yahoo Search....it would just give up. That's what it's programmed to do in the face of *any* complexity usually, never mind typos and crap.

So....I hear you, but...too many people here just don't know how to use a Search function. At all. It's sad. People need FAQs these days, and really *really* smart spell-checkers (on the order of spell- and syntax- checking with a Baynesian filter), on practially every *single* Search Engine page.

Thank AOL for this one. They were the pioneers in letting uneducated people online, and it's all gone downhill since.

I hope this is helpful. Thank you for your time.

Answer 4

It's the points really, and a form of electronic communication. Plus it's obviously a sounding board for some. So sit back and enjoy.