How Many Here Use Google as Their Primary Means of Tech Support?

[Anderton]

So tonight I booted up my ancient Windows laptop that I use pretty much as internet radio, and the little speaker icon for the volume control wasn't in the taskbar. Huh? Oh well, I could always call up the mixer program...but I like the convenience.

 

Went to Google, typed "XP volume control missing from taskbar" and 60 seconds later, the icon was back.

 

Same way I found out about how CodeMeter copy protection USB sticks cause your recycle bin to get weird with 64-bit operating systems. Same way I found out I could open the Pentagon Synth in Sonar only if I opened it as an administrator...and on and on.

 

I can't remember the last time I used a company's actual tech support service. I think we're developing some badass form of universal consciousness. As my daughter says in response to many questions..."I'll ask the internet."

[nat whilk II]

 

I can't remember the last time I used a company's actual tech support service. I think we're developing some badass form of universal consciousness. As my daughter says in response to many questions..."I'll ask the internet."

 

 

I use some pretty specialized business-related software with a userbase of maybe, oh, 50,000 total I'm guessing. So Google might lead me to a thread or two on certain boards, but those typically only go a couple of inches deep. Tech support is a must for those packages.

 

For operating systems, I do end up on MSFT's website from time to time, but more often than not, Google leads me to one of the 10 zillion smart-tech-guy boards that gives me chapter and verse. Like your weird little issue, I've found spot-on solutions for really oddball problems I never could have solved except by luck or upgrade. Like how gmail is inaccesible if my OS system date is off.

 

For music software - well..it depends. I'll email Dave Smith or SoundTower right off it I have Polyevolver questions - google is pretty useless there. For Sonar or Native Instruments, it's a tossup, google or tech support.

 

I'll tell you where I really love Googling little questions - home maintenance and handyman help. 15 year-old Sears lawnmower model 2XY5566-vxy has a sticky bearing you can't figure out how to get off? Where to find a replacement grommet on a 20-year-old Toastmaster? Whether you can mix 40-weight and 50-weight oil in your Ford Focus? Best technique for mitre-ing picture frames under 3"x5"? Some wise old dude has probably written a step-by-step on all this and it's on some board somewhere a google or two away....love it.

 

nat whilk ii

[blue2blue]

Google is the first place I turn for info and I usually get it on the first page of returns, and usually above the fold.

 

Seems like most of the technical, mechanical or other questions/problems I face have already been faced by a number of people, some of whom have generously tried to share their experiences and any wisdom or knowledge they picked up along the way.

 

I'm probably well suited to gaining info from the web on sources from Wikipedia to bulletin boards -- because I don't believe in absolute truths or absolute authorities and tend to think you can gain some small sliver of wisdom from anyone's 'story,' almost no matter how illogical, uninformed, or just plain fabulous. That said, I think even I have my limits.

[MrKnobs]

If you have an illness, or a computer problem, it's a certainty that someone else has had the same experience and posted about it. Google will find it for you, and then "all" you have to do is separate the wheat from the chaff.

 

Simply amazing.

 

Terry D.

[MikeRivers]

I usually go to Google first for computer problems or questions. Sometimes I get a good answer, sometimes I get irrelevant answers, sometimes I get wrong answers. But it's rare that I've received any actual help from a vendor's web site other than to download software updates (which is usually the first thing their tech support will tell you to do if you contact them anyway). But then sometimes I use Google to find the manufacturer's web site when the obvious doesn't work.

[ggm1960]

 

I think we're developing some badass form of universal consciousness. As my daughter says in response to many questions..."I'll ask the internet."

 

 

Slightly different from tech support but we had what we hope will be our new home tested for radon and the level was quite high, 21.8. I had no idea what that meant and as far as that goes, knew very little about what radon gas actually is. Enter Google where a number of useful links appeared. The most informative, however, was Wikipedia (deserving of a thread in it's own right) where I learned everything I could possibly comprehend about Radon and many things I couldn't. Turns out that radon is typically measured in picocuries per liter (a measurement of radioactivity) and it's recommended that the level be less than 4pCi/L in the home (typically the basement). Also turns out that Iowa has the largest average concentrations of radon in the United States!

[MikeRivers]

Just to throw this tread off track a bit, one of my consulting clients searches YouTube when he has a problem with his audio hardware or software. Someone else has usually had the same problem and made a video about it. He says his results are really good and that usually the first or second video that his search turns up tells him what he needs to know.

 

I'm way behind the times and the technology curve on this but if I started making videos, they'd probably be half an hour long and nobody would watch them.

[blue2blue]

 

I think we're developing some badass form of universal consciousness. As my daughter says in response to many questions..."I'll ask the internet."

 

 

It's certainly the biggest thing that has happened to the collective consciousness since the printing press. Maybe since the printed word.

 

Now... whether we can hold it together or whether a jealous, scornful 'god' will reach down to shatter it and scatter our knowledge to the wind... that may be the 64 gazillion* dollar question.

 

 

 

 

*Adjusted for inflation.

[UstadKhanAli]

There's a lot of good instructional videos on YouTube.

 

I can frequently find the answer to what I'm looking for with a Google search, and therefore often will do that before consulting a manual (which frequently does not have specific error messages anyway), and definitely before consulting tech support.

 

There's some paid subscription services, such as lynda.com, that offer very high quality instructional videos on anything from Photoshop to photography to Photoshop to a jillion other things.

[PermaNoobie]

I use it (google) to get some research handles. The 'popularity convergence' clustering aspect of these sort of engines I think tends to work in the user's favor in this sort of case since it is commonality of experience that is being sought.

As Terry D has pointed out, however, one still has to sort through the quality of the information. So I find that the Google search, often, gets me to the environments that I then explore for good answers (the ultimate answer is, often not, the specific content google pointed me to, but is in the same environment)

[Ernest Buckley]

Yup, google is an amazing beast. When FB and Twitter go south, Google will still remain because it provides a service everyone needs.

[gubu]

I just come to the HC forums. I was even able to recondition my lawnmower after advice from here.

[Anderton]

 

I just come to the HC forums. I was even able to recondition my lawnmower after advice from here.

 

 

Actually, a lot of times Google leads me back here!

[UstadKhanAli]

Same here. I've gotten a lot of answers from this very forum.

[BushmasterM4]

I use it for all appliance and auto repairs. Always been a do-it-yourself type of guy and Google has saved me time and replacement part cost.

[BushmasterM4]

PS, I find all other search engines wouldnt even make a pimple on Googles ass

[Jeff da Weasel]

I always invariably start with Google, and 97% of the time, find out what I need to know without ever turning to another source.

[Kendrix]

I saved $149 doing this just last month.

That was after 4 hours on useless Vendor tech support and then an offer from MS to give me the answer if I signed up for a year of support - for 149.

They've got to be kiddding.

Google turned up the answer and I fixed my machine.

 

On a related point I see that the cable companies are now offering geek squad style support for monthly fees.

 

If it weren't for my DAW I might just abandon the PC platform.

Its becomming more trouble than the value it adds for simple surfing, transacting and e-mailing.

Today I had to do a system restore since my machine was not booting up all the way. ( pls dont ask why- I dont know)

The new intel commercials are trying to get us fired up about their new chips.

Oh PLeeeese. MS will just eat up the power with its next update.

This security challenged, virus infected platform has become moribund.

Its putting our national security at risk.

It now deserves to die.

 

FWIW- I have my DAW machine off-line to keep it manageable.

All the above fun was on a seperate win7 laptop.

 

What was the question?

[Beck]

Yep, been googling for the quick answer for fixes of various things for about ten years. Going to Microsoft.com is the last place I would go for a problem with a Windows OS or program. Same with most other software and hardware. At one time I used copernic, which IMO was the best Internet search solution around. My old version became outdated as search engines went defunct and archives disappeared.

 

Compared to the things I once was able to find with other search engines, google has no depth, but it does serve a purpose as that first go-to. The web is much more cluttered with commercial results when searching, where as I used to find more serious academic research from colleges and universities around the world. Most of that stuff is in the deep Internet and you simply can

[Ronan Murphy]

How long til tech support questions are answered this way

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=How+do+I+make+your+busted+product+work

[Mileskb]

My tech support mantra has been for several years "google is your friend." It wasn't always this way. I read a quote once that went something like "When searching the internet you likely will not find the information you are looking for, but you will almost certainly find some information you didn't know you needed." But now it's second nature.

 

I can't count how many times in the past couple of years I've been in the situation of having a piece of gear in front of me that I haven't used before. Being called in at the last minute on a project that's "going live" in a few hours doesn't leave a lot of 'how to" time. Everything from actually downloading the user guide to finding someone on some forum somewhere that has the answer has bailed me out more than once. Even something as simple as an artist showing up to sound check, late of course, with their own microphone.... it's nice to be able to look up the specs and be a little more prepared than I would just plugging it in and winging it... at least finding out it requires phantom power saves a load of WTF time.

[Mileskb]

My tech support mantra has been for several years "google is your friend." It wasn't always this way. I read a quote once that went something like "When searching the internet you likely will not find the information you are looking for, but you will almost certainly find some information you didn't know you needed." But now it's second nature.

 

I can't count how many times in the past couple of years I've been in the situation of having a piece of gear in front of me that I haven't used before. Being called in at the last minute on a project that's "going live" in a few hours doesn't leave a lot of 'how to" time. Everything from actually downloading the user guide to finding someone on some forum somewhere that has the answer has bailed me out more than once. Even something as simple as an artist showing up to sound check, late of course, with their own microphone.... it's nice to be able to look up the specs and be a little more prepared than I would just plugging it in and winging it... at least finding out it requires phantom power saves a load of WTF time.

[MrKnobs]

The web is much more cluttered with commercial results when searching, .

 

The answer.

 

As with nuclear energy (or any other important human development) the internet facilitates the best and worst of human endeavor.

 

Some would say p0rn is the worst of the internet, but p0rn financed the whole shooting match from the net itself to payment technology on the net, and still pays for a sizeable share of it.

 

I say there are twin plagues on the net.

 

The first is the unbelievable amount of "video grafitti" suffocating the net's bandwidth, people posting rants, vids of their dog or cat doing "cute" things, teenagers dancing or lip syncing in their underwear to popular music, other people's babies spitting up, etc. For the ability to see this crap that no one cares about on our mobile devices a stroke of the legislative pen rendered tens of millions of dollars of wireless music gear useless and even criminal to use. Society has decided it's more important to stream a TV show or YouTube to your smart phone than it is for musicians to have wireless IEMs, guitars, or microphones.

 

The second is far worse, I think. It's the crass commercialization of nearly everything, the facebooking of businesses, the urging to LIKE Corporation X in return for getting an e-coupon for some sickeningly sweet treat or a "discount" price on a pair of crap jeans from China. Global corporations won't take the idea of "free information" sitting down, they'll seek to control the internet one way or another. Already they've attempted to control bandwidth by coopting the ISPs to throttle some material and let other, corporate approved content flow freely.

 

I guess we'll all be on the sidelines watching how this battle shapes up. As in Idiocracy, we have seen the enemy and he is us.

 

Terry D.

[Jimbroni]

I didn't realize there was tech support in other places besides google.

 

It is funny, how many times its pointed me here though.

[spokenward]

the best defense against a manipulated internet is to remember that by learning and using just a few of the search tool commands you can drill past the "clutter" and "commercialization".

 

The single most useful tool is site specific search.

 

site:harmony-central.com

 

added to your search will always bring you back here.

 

You can quote all or part of your search terms for explicit searches and you can remember the rest over here at Google's "more search help"