Search Engines Part-II

I had written quite some time back about search engines, in particular Google, and how they can be an intrusion on privacy. Most of the information I had mentioned still turns up if you consult Google.

Having said all that, I must mention some of the good aspects of search engines.

After reading my earlier post, a friend of mine googled the name of some guy who was hitting on her and came to know that he was married (with a kid enrolled in a school whose website listed the names of students and their parents) and had been lying about his qualifications. The fellow claimed he had done the five year M.S. from IIT-Kanpur, but IITK’s alumni website proved otherwise.

In the last few days, I managed to find clips/streams of quite a few songs I like and their lyrics after consulting Google. If you are one of the conventional, religious types then you’d easily get links to download hymns and religious music of pretty much all religions. I know because I downloaded “Abide with me” only because it is a soldier’s song and I hear it on Beating the Retreat on January 29^th, every year.

Wikipedia.org, the online encyclopedia, is an awesome website! You can get information on anything there. I frequently lookup historical events and tricks with digital cameras, there. It helped me verify Paulo Coelho's claims in his book 'The Zahir', about the Aral sea drying up.

Keep googling people, and if you come to know something interesting, post it as a comment.