Google: It Is a Wonder They Exist at All

Google may currently have the upper hand in the search engine war, but think about it: what good is indexing and cataloguing information if no one will ever use it? I ask this because the simple fact is that most people — and I'm not just talking about grandmas here — have just no damned idea that their files even can be indexed, or that software exists to help them find what they want.

I'm serious. I am continually reminded of this fact because I'll get calls from people who have misplaced a file and need me to find it for them. Invariably, I start at the folder where they had it last, go up one in the file tree, and do a standard, plain Jane, Windows file/folder search. Invariably, the file pops up in less than 60 seconds. Are these people just ignorant of this feature? Do they not know that computers can keep track of their files for them? Yes. I don't even bother asking them if they tried searching for the missing file, because I know what the answer will be. Keep in mind that I can't phrase the question as "Did you search for the file?", because the answer will be "Yes. I looked all over for it and I can't find it." These people are just doing a vgrep and they don't even know it. Instead, I would have to phrase the question as "Did you run Search in the directory where the missing file was?" And the answer will be "Uh. What's that?" So Google can go full-bore into developing the technology to give me any file I want in less than one second. Big deal. It won't help them if there is no one who will use it.

What I can't understand is why people are allowed to use a computer without having the slightest grasp of a skill as critical as searching. It is literally a matter of them saying "I can't find the file where I thought I put it, so I'll just have to call Toby to run my own search for me." And whenever I do this, I am amazed that Google is still in business. I mean, sure, their technology is grand and their algorithms are first-rate. But how on Earth did they get people to wrap their puny minds around the idea that searching can find files? Because whatever their secret is, I want to know it.