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I only just read this thread, so I apologise if I'm a thread necromancer.
I did notice that so far, noone's actually suggested responding with 'Google it with the search terms X Y Z'.
I find I get a lot of grateful responses when I do that. Though I'm more often inclined to say 'try webpage blah, I found it googling search terms X Y Z'.
That way, I've answered their question in a way that still requires some thought and reading comprehension, and which gives them an avenue for further research.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Google gives different responses based on your geographic location. It biases towards pages hosted near the source IP. So just because an American can Google the exact phrase and get the correct answer in the top-10 responses, that doesn't mean an Australian can. And vice versa.
This is useful when shopping, or when research local history, but not when researching, say, another country's history.
If there was a US exploration team called 'Burke and Wills', and I googled that phrase, my responses would be dominated by our own exploration team of that name.
I did notice that so far, noone's actually suggested responding with 'Google it with the search terms X Y Z'.
I find I get a lot of grateful responses when I do that. Though I'm more often inclined to say 'try webpage blah, I found it googling search terms X Y Z'.
That way, I've answered their question in a way that still requires some thought and reading comprehension, and which gives them an avenue for further research.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Google gives different responses based on your geographic location. It biases towards pages hosted near the source IP. So just because an American can Google the exact phrase and get the correct answer in the top-10 responses, that doesn't mean an Australian can. And vice versa.
This is useful when shopping, or when research local history, but not when researching, say, another country's history.
If there was a US exploration team called 'Burke and Wills', and I googled that phrase, my responses would be dominated by our own exploration team of that name.
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