Comic: Why Can’t We Just Google It?

r.kyserSeptember 4, 2024September 4, 2024

Today on the blog, we answer a common query: why can't we use Google? Hopefully this comic provides an answer.

Panel 1:

Narration: It’s wild to remember how information seeking used to work before Google.
Image: A picture of the google search string is shown

Panel 2:
Narration: I don’t have the best memory of it myself: I was a 90’s kid who was still in 6th grade when the digital revolution started to really hit its stride.
Image: A picture of the cartoonist, Rebecca, as a child is shown. She has glasses, a green day American idiot shirt on, and a bob haircut. Next to her labels read as follows: My early 2000s look: thick pair of glasses, bowl cut unsuited for curly hair, i-pod mini blasting MCR, t-shirt from hot topic

Panel 3:
Narration: I was taught to use a card catalog in the library and until age 12, I viewed the computer mostly as a machine to play games on.
Image: A screenshot from oregon trail is shown. It is the outline of a bull and wagon in bright green. Under the image, text reads: you have died of dysentery.

Panel 4:
Narration: Google was around along with Ask Jeeves and Yahoo, but it wasn’t quite the default search engine it is today.
Image: a 6th grade Rebecca now wearing a different shirt, looks intent as she uses an old apple computer from the 2000s. A thought bubble next to her reads “how to catch regirock pokemon ruby”

Panel 5:
Narration: In high school, however, google had won its spot as king of the search engines.
Image: The cartoonist, now age 15 in a batman shirt is shown, with straight hair and no glasses. Text next to her is labeled as follows: My mid-late 2000’s look: burnt hair from hair straightener, contacts, first pair of earrings, t-shirt still from hot topic.

Panel 6: It was so well known, it’s now a very: the term “google” was added to multiple dictionaries in 2006 (1).

Image: Two women, one with her hair up in a bun and a blue sweater, and one with long straight hair with a scarf stand in a baking grocery aisle. The one in the blue sweater says “Hey can you google what we need to make red velvet?” and the woman with the scarf, checking her phone says “Yeah sure.”

Panel 7: I use Google frequently to this day. Just this morning I googled… a question about Pokemon.

Image: The cartoonist, now, wearing a purple shirt, a light purple blouse and glasses, holds up her phone. She says “some things never change.” In the bottom right hand corner, text reads “I wish this was a joke, but sure enough my history is “encounters for Tornadus”

Panel 8:
Narration: “Now with all of this said, let’s dive into a question I hear a lot from medical students
Image: Four different students, a man with a beard and a beanie, a women with a pink shirt and red hair, a man with glasses and a tie and a man with curly hair and a green jacket all ask “why do you not want us to use google.”

Panel 12:
Narration: It may appear like asking folks to take the long way around.
Image: A map is shown with a blue and a red route. The red route appears shorter and a speech bubble from off screen says “Red is faster!”

Panel 13:
Narration: The key word here is “appears.” Because the fact of the matter is, trying to find academic papers with Google may take longer than just using a database.
Image: The same map is shown, but this time we can see that the red route goes through a body of water and mountains. A speech bubble from off screen says “wait a second…look at this version.”

Panel 14: This is because Google indexes webpages. Scholarly articles are often not indexed as Webpages. So they won’t appear with a Google search (2).
Image: A magnifying glass with green glass is shown on a purple whiteboard. On the whiteboard, text reading “webpage” is written in black, while text in green reads “article.” Due to the green glass in the magnifying glass, the text reading “articles” can’t be seen. A speech bubble from off screen reads “I don’t see anything there.”

Panel 12:
Image: A bald man with a goatee and a blue long sleeved shirt asks: “what about google scholar?”
Across from him, Rebecca, replies “Good question.”

Panel 13:
Narration: Google scholar has its uses, but it doesn’t index quite as comprehensively as a library database. Also, since it’s highly automated, it can contain articles from predatory publishers or other untrustworthy sources (3)..
Image: A man with blonde hair and a tie standing at a podium looks skeptically at a shark with a top hat and a red bowtie. He asks “You’re a publisher” which the shark replies “You betcha.” Text in the upper right hand corner reads “see the comic predatory publishing for more on ponzi the shark (4).”

Panel 14:
Narration: Another advantage to databases is their filters. Google has some filters like publication date but there’s not much to limit results unless you like long search strings.

Image: Rebecca stands in front of a computer monitor. The monitor reads: Search: Headache Results: 2,300,000. Rebecca says “that’s a lot of results!”

Panel 15:
Narration: Given the size of the web, without ways to filter results, you might find yourself looking for a metaphorical needle in a haystack.
Image: A person with short brown hair, a red jacket and an orange shirt looks at a stack of hay. They say, looking resigned “Time to find a pitchfork, I guess:

Panel 16: Databases have a variety of filters that allowTYPO us to be very specific regarding our searches. To use our haystack metaphorTYPO, an academic database is like searching with a metal detector.

Image: A women with a green shirt and long black hair holds out a metal detector towards the haystack. She says, excited “found it!” The person from the last panel, has their head poking out of the haystack, says “I’m never gonna get this hay out of my hair.”

Panel 17:
Narration: Finding Good medical information with google might not only take longer than a database but it might take you to a biased or out of date answer.
Image: Dorthy, from the wizard of Oz, holding Toto, explores what looks to be a dungeon with cobwebs, a bookshelf full of outdated books on “The 4 Humors and Miasma.” She says “I don’t think we’re in accurate medical literature anymore, Toto.”

Panel 20:
Narration: Google can also provide results that are flat out wrong.
Image: Dorthy still with Toto, stands in Mordor from lord of the rings. They eye of Saroun, Mnt Doom and fire can be seen in the distance. Near Dorthy, a sign reads “Sick? Try the one ring!” with a picture of the ring. Dorthy says “We’re definitely not in accurate medical literature anymore.”

Panel 21:
Narration: Back when I was in grad school, studying covid misinformation, the second result google gave me for “covid care” was an anti vax org.
Image: Rebecca, sitting at a desk with her computer, a cup of coffee and a lamp, leans back as a duck wearing a white lab coat pokes out of her computer screen. Rebecca, disgusted says “Ah! A Quack!” The Duck says “Have you tried my magic tonic water?!”

Panel 22:
Narration: (Also, Google’s AI summaries are making the false information problem worse. See the comic on AI for more info) (6).
Image: A robot holds a tray with a slice of hot pizza on it. On the monitor that us the robot’s head, text reads as “Menu: Pizza with Glue”

Panel 23:
Narration: This isn’t to say google has no uses: if you need to look up something straightforward, like the scientific name for viruses that can cause the common cold, it can probably do that (7).
Image: Three virus molecules are shown labeled as “rhinoviruses” ”Coronaviruses” and “adenoviruses.” The rhinoviruses has a rhino horn on it’s head. The coronaviruses says “please don’t confuse me with my cousin!” The Adenoviruses says “Time to pray at the porcelain throne.”

Panel 24:
Narration: But I wouldn’t necessarily go to google to get treatment advice for the common cold.
Panel: Three types of advice are shown. Next to an image of a glass of water and tea text reads: drink lots of fluids? Good. Next to the image of a variety of fruits such as orange, strawberries and lemons text reads :Eat stuff with vitamin C? Uh, well it won’t hurt you, I guess (and tasty)? Next to the image of three pills, text reads as “antibiotics? Noooo.” One of the pills says “Wait, did you say viruses?”

Panel 25:
Narration: Think of Google as one tool in your toolbelt. It’s good for some tasks, but that doesn’t mean you should use it for everything.
Image: A hammer labeled as google, tries to hammer a screw into a piece of wood.

Panel 26:
Narration: So make sure to use the right tool for the task. Dynamed or Epocrates for practice guidelines, pubmed or scopus for peer reviewed articles, access medicine or clinical key for textbooks.
Image: A toolbelt containing a scraper, a screwdriver and pliers hangs down the side of the page.

Panel 27:
Narration: And Google for where to find a snack after a job well done.
Image: Rebecca sits at a table with a giant bowl full of pasta. Her eyes are closed and she looks content, with little hearts next to her. In the bottom right hand corner, text reads as “fin.”

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