Let Me Google That For You

I really appreciate this site. Although it was originally presented to me as a joke from fellow developers, it has its useful benefits.

First, lmgtfy.com has matured into a full blown search engine. So, credit to the people who must have grown their user base to a point that they decided to expand into the search engine market.

But that’s not why I’m here. It’s common in the developer world to expect someone to attempt to find an answer before they ask for help. If you are like myself, you do it too well and end up spending a whole day on a problem just to figure it out. When, you could have posed the question to a group of people who might have been able to help you solve your issue in considerably less time.

This tool is for that other group of people. The ones who first ask for help and haven’t attempted to solve it. Or worse, haven’t narrowed down what the true problem is. It’s a reminder that a lot can be discovered just by searching for the information and encourages people to “Teach others how to fish.”

I haven’t used this site in so long that it took me five to ten minutes to find it. Ironically, just when I was about to ask a group of people if they knew about a site that does x, y, and z, I improved my search terms and found exactly what I was looking for.

If you haven’t used this tool, I encourage you to try it out on anyone who asks you a question. A warning however, it’s easy to cross the line of being harsh or a smart aleck, so be cautious of this when you’re sharing it and try to be encouraging.