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> My problem when I search isn't that I am overwhelmed with technical
> information about a product, it is that I am overwhelmed with
> non-informative advertisements about a product. Just Google "Western
> Digital Hard Drive" and see how many are purely advertisements for
> purchasing.
>
> If only we could draw a fine line (where is the real problem) between
> technical publications and marketing ploys. The digital cable salesman
> on my doorstep was trying to mask his marketing as a public service
> devoted to my education about the technology of cable and broadband
> Internet.
You're assuming that what you want to search for is what I (and 4 gazillion
other people) want to search for. I may be in the market to buy a Western
Digital Hard Drive. To me, I'm looking for exactly "non-informative
advertisements about a product", to me, they are extremely informative. But
according to your wishes of getting only technical information, I'm now not
getting what I want.
With a query like "Western Digital Hard Drive", what do you expect but to
receive a bazillion hits. Try asking well formed queries that contain some
thought and an understanding of how your favorite search engine handles
queries...every one is different. The way I do it is to include key words
specific to what I'm looking for. For example, Western Digital Hard Drive
dip slave will get you different results than WD Caviar Technical
Specification, or something with terms that you are looking for.
You've heard of GIGO?
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
NY: 212-414-6656
Dayton: 732-438-3372
You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that
never were; and I say "Why not?"
-----George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah, 1921
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