Can people actually find out what other's are googling? Your searches do sound a little sketchy, but there must be weirder things out there. Great title, by the way.
Posted by Corky (Member # 2714) on :
You can look at someone's browser and see what websites they've been to lately (you just click on that little down-pointing arrow at the end of the URL space near the top of the browser).
Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
I frequently google.
By the way, if you are researching poisons, there's a really good poison thread on here. I'll see if I can find it and bump it back up to the top.
Posted by BuffySquirrel (Member # 2780) on :
I use this book:
Deadly Doses, a writer's guide to poisons by Serita Deborah Stevens with Anne Klarner.
It's immensely useful--I used it to find a poison that would alert the intended victim by its smell and clean the gunk out of their hip flask all at the same time.
It is however not very well set out, which is a shame. Entries tend to run into each other.
I read somewhere that the content of Google searches constantly flashes up on a big board at their HQ.
ISPs keep a record of sites their users visit. They probably wouldn't record what you typed into Google, but they would record any sites you visited as a result of those searches. In the present insane climate ("we know this is not an innocent tourist video precisely because it looks exactly like one"), that could have consequences. But the risk is probably remote, unless of course one of your close relatives is poisoned...
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
It's more of a consideration at work for me, which is why ask the experts here, rather than frequent sites of firearms or poison...
Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :
If you have concerns about your searches at work, I would listen to my gut instincts on that. Some employers can, and will fire employees for "inappropriate" activity--I used to work for county government, and ALL government web activity was considered "public domain information." It was made abundantly clear to us that anyone caught websurfing inappropriate sites, particularly ones that might make the evening news, would be subject to disciplinary action, and possible termination (of employment.) Now, granted, this is usually applied when porno is the topic in question, but the bottom line is that I'd be careful where I surfed while at work.
On the topic of GOOGLING, I google for research ALL the time. And do not forget to GOOGLE using the image search feature. I've found terrific material via image links.
Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :
I have this marked as a reference for medieval poisons:
The main website is http://www.florilegium.org and has a lot of useful info for folks working with medieval fantasy. The website owner seems to be heavily into SCA (Society of Creative Anachronism) and has a plethora of useful articles and links.
Posted by pixydust (Member # 2311) on :
Where would we writer's be without the internet? Man, I'd have to rent a room at the local library and sleep there. Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
All the time, when I need it. Just the other day, I was trying to find something about a memorial service for a school shooting. What I got wasn't satisfactory---I'm looking for the order in which the speakers speak, and some of what was said---but I may not have phrased my query right.
I'll give it another try, maybe when I actually reach that point in my current draft.
Posted by Doc Brown (Member # 1118) on :
On September 11, 2001, while we were watching the towers burn on television, I asked my students to Google "anthrax." Then I pointed out that the government might discover that they had all submitted that search on that day.
This little lesson in civil liberties may have worked too well, as some of my students began having some real anxiety that the CIA would bring them in for questioning. As the semester went on and the new Department of Homeland Security was formed, a couple of students became very agitated that they might end up in prison because of that Google search.
Posted by maria102182 (Member # 2829) on :
I hadn't thought of Google before. Maybe I'm just behind the times. Sounds like IU should get with it! Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
You should have turned it into a lesson on law enforcement that that point, told them that half the computer users in the world were Googling all manner of terms associated with terrorism that day.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Just found out about this and thought I'd share it.
Apologies to those who already knew about it.
When you put a search item in the Google search box and hit "enter," you receive a list of search results, right?
Well, if you click on "cached" (it's next to the website URL at the end of each result) as you check out each website, then when the webpage comes up on your screen, the item you had in the search box will be highlighted on the page and much easier to locate.
I can't begin to list the number of times I've done a search and not been able to find what I was looking for on the webpage because it was one small item in a huge page of stuff.
So I'm rather excited about this, as you may be able to tell.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Wow...I think I noticed the "cached" the first time I Googled...I feel much better about missing the scroll feature on the reply page now.
I agree about its use for spotting what you're looking for...
"A federal judge said Tuesday he intends to require Google Inc. to turn over some information to the Department of Justice... The legal showdown over how much of the Web's vast databases should be shared with the government has pitted the Bush administration against the Mountain View-based company, which resisted a subpoena to turn over any information because of user privacy and trade secret concerns."
Check google watch if you want to see how sneaky google can be.
Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :
Interesting... I attempted to pull up the scroogle site and got redirected... Perhaps someone doesn't want us to know what is going on?
Posted by rcorporon (Member # 2879) on :
Google wants to keep the US government from learning things about what's being searched out through their engine...but they're willing to cooperate with the government of China about what can and can't be searched and on ratting out who's doing the searching. Somewhere in there there's an inconsistency...
Posted by Silver3 (Member # 2174) on :
That's google? I thought it was Yahoo! that had agreed with China on banning the sites that did not agree with official party policy?
Then again, my news are not very fresh...
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
It's not inconsistent, it's just that nobody cares about the freedoms of Chinese people.
As for being sneaky and privacy concerns and all that...I can't help but lean towards the "information wants to be free" side of this particular issue. I think that the online world would be a nicer place if people were more willing to accept that everyone else has a right to know what they're doing.
After all, there is no freedom without information. While restricting the flow of information may seem to make some individuals a bit more free, it makes all individuals much less free.
