Anonymous

Do search engines only provide certain information about the knowledge we seek?

3

3 Answers

Didge Doo Profile
Didge Doo answered

Search engines have improved beyond imagination but they can only provide information that is available on the Web. They can't really give access to sites that require payment for information, though they may  indicate that such information is there.

You can save yourself a lot of time if you frame your search carefully. The order of the words you input will determine the relevance of the links you are given.

Tom  Jackson Profile
Tom Jackson answered

Unfortunately, it's always up to us to evaluate the information we find anywhere.

One of my pet peeves is people who state opinions in phraseology that would generally indicate it is from an esteemed reference source, but do not qualify it by some phrase such as "I think" or "Some say" or "I've heard" or some other indication that further research is warranted by anyone asking or reading the answer to the question.

Obviously, if someone asks "is there a god" or "who would make the best president among all the current candidates" we all know that all such answers are only opinions, no matter how well reasoned they are.

However, for example, in one previous discussion on here, one answer included a statement along the lines that in the third trimester of pregnancy, there was no indication that the unborn child felt any pain.

It was presented as a statement of fact.  Yet at the time, I found the source of that quote and found that it had been generally discredited by the majority of professionals in the field. 

Consider the potential damage done to an unborn child and its unmarried teenage parents who read that and took it as a undisputed scientific findings.

I have previously characterized this issue as one of "intellectual integrity" on here.

(Collapses soapbox and exits stage left.)

Semon Sehal Profile
Semon Sehal answered

No, search engines provide so much information.

Answer Question

Anonymous