An unkempt woman with stringy hair and a dirty shirt gave me a five-minute lecture at the library yesterday because we have a shortcut to Google on the desktop of each public computer (we also have shortcuts to Craigslist, YouTube, and Facebook, because they are four of the most popular sites our patrons visit). I didn’t really follow her rambling lecture except to determine that she hated monopolies and was mad at us for “forcing” our patrons to use Google. When I tried to tell her that the vast majority of our patrons wanted to use Google and we were just making it easier/faster for them to get there, she interrupted me and said it had nothing to do with desire and everything to do with a lack of choice. She wanted us to replace the Google link with a link that said “Search Engines” which would take people to a directory of every search engine in existence. Look lady, people just want to search the web. They don’t want an interim step of deciding which search engine they’re going to use to accomplish that step. Most people don’t care what search engine they use. They just use Google because it’s fast and easy. As I mentioned about five different times, you are welcome to not use Google.
Google brainwashing
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