Info-Tsunami

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“4,56,721 results in 0.18 seconds” says my search result. It was something as simple as trying to find my office address. Is this not a bit of an over-kill? Considering that half the search links would lead to repetitive sites, remaining to public forums, junk sites and unwanted information.
I’m not blaming the search engine here. It’s just doing its job of fetching any string it matches but what bothers me is the sheer overload of data I’ve been festooned with. We might be patient enough to go through all links in the first page but later on it’s just a whole load of s** t you don’t need.

This especially started annoying me when I started my research on a smartphone. I ended up getting so frustrated that I decided not to buy/research/talk about phones for some time to come. I mean, reviews are fine but the comments; OMG! Each contradicting the previous, justifying his/her purchase and defending themselves to the hilt.  Also, what really annoys me is that members with very less credibility contribute here, leaving you more and more confused. At the end of it all, my opinion is to be sure of what you want, go through a few expert reviews and decide on what flaws you can live with.

I agree that the ultimate goal is to educate the masses and help them take better decisions. Let me explain this sticking to my story of the smartphone. When I zeroed in on a couple of phones around 20k, I did what everyone would do and researched for a few weeks. Expert reviews, reviews, forums, discussions, you name it, I saw them all. Say I end up with brand A after all this, after my purchase, I’ll be bombarded with questions from friends, family, colleagues, salesmen (Oh ya!) as to why I chose this over brand B as that has better this, better that, blah blah blah.

At the end of it all, I ended up deciding that my 2 year old Nokia with all the essentials is everything I want at the moment.  
The brighter side to this story is that all this internet gyaan and user opinions helped me avoid mistakes made by others. It’s fine by me as I’ve not ended up disappointed but think of the poor chap who’s made mistakes. I mean, he’s just spent a lot of his hard-earned money on something he thought was good. This is an honest request when you’re posting in a public forum; there are many reasons why consumers choose one thing over another. Also, respect the fact that everyone is entitled to their opinion. Try being supportive instead of assertive, it goes a long way.

I guess the tone of this post changed drastically. I’m sure many of us have become tech-savvy and turn to the internet for answers/opinions.
(Please do let me know if you could make complete sense out of this!)
 
 
 

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