I didn't say it o! SO don't blame me

http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2007/05/google_is_makin.html

The search engine giant has so much information and is making it so easy for us to obtain it, that it discourages traditional avenues of learning such as studying, doing one’s own field work, and taking classes. Pro or con?

Pro: Fragmented Facts
by Jakob Nielsen, Phd, Nielsen Norman Group

I have a very popular Web site, so why do I continue to write books? And why do I stick with an even older medium and gather people around the flickering light of the campfire (okay, slide projector) to speak to them in person at an annual conference?

I do it because old media are highly superior to the Web for learning about complicated topics. The Web fragments information into tiny nuggets that can be digested during a two-minute visit to a Web site.

Google (GOOG) is your savior when you wish to ascertain an obscure fact, such as when King Christian IV built the Round Tower in Copenhagen. Searching for "Christian IV year Round Tower built" brings up the correct answer (1642) in the summaries for the top two search hits. No need to click through. Google has built the perfect answer engine by repurposing the labors of millions of authors.

But what about going beyond surface facts to deeper knowledge? What was the relative strength of the various European navies during the Renaissance, and how have they influenced the heritage of North Atlantic islands? Sure, there are articles about these topics on the Web, and you can find some of them with Google, but to really understand how these issues are connected and how developments hundreds of years ago continue to influence modern societies, you must read a book.

Our studies show that users spend less than two minutes visiting a Web site. Google encourages such superficial visits to multiple sites, because it makes it so easy to find additional places to surf. It’s not worth the hassle of digging into any one site when there are so many other tantalizing options one click away.

Web sites must be simple to survive under Google’s rule. But since Google creates superficial surfing, we need something else for learning. The Web is not a great learning environment, and we should acknowledge this fact, and emphasize other media for deep understanding.

Con: Enrichment Via Information
by David Alan Grier, Phd, George Washington University

Google makes us more intelligent. Anything that gives us easy access to the vast and ever-changing body of knowledge is bound to stimulate us and make us think more deeply about the world. To claim Google makes us dumber implies that other projects that widely disseminate information, such as the Carnegie Libraries of the late 19th century and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) rural-life projects of the 1930s, logically could be criticized on the same grounds.

At the same time, we must remember Google was never intended to improve all aspects of intelligence—nor was it designed to make us more creative or more rational or better able to evaluate information.

Google creators Sergy Brin and Larry Page wanted their invention to capture common judgments rather than advanced intelligence. They wanted to build a system that organized information according to its popularity among the people and organizations that contribute to the Internet. While the results from other ways of searching for information are often amusing and expand users’ horizons, Brin and Page wrote, "They are often frustrating and consume precious time."

If Google is based on common judgment and simple popularity, how can it help but make us smarter? It raises the standard for research. It makes it harder for us to advocate uninformed opinions and promote ill-conceived plans. When a quick Google search reveals something that you have not considered or undermines your basic ideas, it lets you know you have not done enough work.

Nonetheless, does Google sometimes fail us? Definitely. Does it provide all the information that we will ever need? Of course not. Google may not turn us all into geniuses, but it will at least keep some of us from looking like dunces.

@post
i DISAGREE WITH YOU, GOOGLE IS MAKING ME SMARTER!! check out googlecommunity.com to hear more testimonies!!

The only way Google has made me dumber is I really don't care anymore about the spelling of anything. I know Google will correct it for me and ask me if this is not what I was looking for.

@chessguru

I think you should visit the URL and leave your comments below the article. I seriously doubt the author of the article visits Nairaland to know how you feel

Anyway, I really think, the net controllers are trying to make everything easy, if you think google makes u lazy, stop using frontpage, photoshop and other tools when trying to make your website, try to code from the scratch. I bet you, you will succed but that might be after some brain punishments, so give kudos to the greatest and all knowing (netwise) google of the world.

Forget it!
google is making me smarter, richer and even wiser.

i make crazy cash with google. check out this free blog http://allgoogleaffiliate..com which make me $67 under 12 days. you can try it out. but get the right knowledge on google adsense.

eg.
the best format to use
the best colour that attracts high payment per click and so on

you can check it out and see how a foolish marketer is make it out there using free blogs.
http:allgoogleaffiliate..com

@ mrghost So can you give me more explanation about how you'd been doing the Google thing, and how i can also get benefit from it

It makes life sooo much easier. This is some bull.

Absolute nonsense!

Whoever posted this is a standard bastard and a corporate fool who is after personal greed and a hypocrite. U guys just want to spoil ur dreams because trying to paint Google black is a suicide mission, Shut up am not through! A word of advise to you guys is that u should write a 4000 page apology essay to Google organization, FOOLS

D - 2008
U - 2009
M - 2010
B - 2011

I have acquired gazzilions of knowlege, and can code in like 20 different programming languages very well,
and i can speak/write a number of languages - aside english and espanol.
And i have been able to do medical research, learn some other trades and so many other stuffs.

If i were to pay for all these knowleges, i am sure i will not have been able to pay for these things at all.
I even at one time worked in a computer school as an Oracle Lecturer, and i was well paid for it - and yet
i acquired all the knowlege from google.

I have never been enrolled in any computer school or paid to learn jack on the computer. So this google is
making you dumber does not apply to me.

I will say that it is how you make use of google that makes you smarter or dumber.