A Google Question.......

[trt]

When people want to know something theses days, they usually go to the above, but who puts this stuff on, as every subject on earth seems to be covered?

There must be billions of how to do this, what happened in 1840, when was the first or last of something or other, and the list goes on.

[fiction-factory]

It just picks it up from whichever site the info is on.

[fiction-factory]

I do find it hard to imagine where all this data is stored though- and there must be so much data going through the air now with mobiles, ipads etc

[fiction-factory]

http://www.herebeanswers.com/2011/01/where-is-data-on-internet-stored.html

[fiction-factory]

I have just found this
http://iq.intel.com/visualizing-the-ghostly-wifi-waves-that-surround-us/

[Sqad]

Google?...no idea. But Wikipedia is assembled by a group of experts in that particular field, Law, the Arts, etc .etc and is added to as time goes on by anybody that has up to date data.

What drives me mad is the links in Body and Soul which are based on people knowing what they are talking about, not what they think they know and many of the links are totally inappropriate.

If you know without doubt, the subject, confirmed by experts in that field, then Wikipedia and Google are invaluable.

For me the main problem is that it is so impersonal and that experience counts for less and less.

[Gromit]

'Google'
'every subject'
'Billions'
'When was the first'
'Last of something'

Some keywords from your question.
When any information is put on the world wide web it becomes public for anyone to read. Google have developed a computerise system that automatically reads the billions of webpages, and has mathermatical methods of cataloguing the pages using keywords (and other criteria). Then it makes the results findable through their engine for searching.

I have just search Google with your keywords and this thread is halfway down the page.

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=+Google++%2B+want+to+know+something+%2B+theses+days+%2B+There+must+be+billions+%2B+when+was+the+first+or+last+of+something+%2B+15:30+Tue+28th+Jul+2015

[jno]

I think trt is asking not how Google picks stuff up, but who goes to the trouble of putting the tsunami of trivia on the web in the first place. (Apologies if I've got this wrong.)

In which case the answer is almost everyone. I put things on AB. Others set up their own blogs or websites to discuss the intricacies of building models of the Eiffel Tower with matchsticks. Most people are on computers these days and can create websites or contribute to others.

[trt]

## I think trt is asking not how Google picks stuff up, but who goes to the trouble of putting the tsunami of trivia on the web in the first place. (Apologies if I've got this wrong.) ##

In a way jno yes.

For instance, if I could do something, or knew something that nobody else knew or cold do, how would I put it on Google?

[Gromit]

Thanks jno,

By the way, if you click on the google link I have posted, there are a couple of results from mysuperslim.com, that I was enquiring to the Ab Editor about.

[Aquariel]

trt, you could set up your own web page quite easily and put on it whatever you wanted to put on it. As Gromit mentioned, Google has automated systems to trawl through the web and index the contents of websites, which would potentially include yours. If your website was useful it would become more popular and potentially move higher up the list on Google's search results.

Having said that, there's still a wealth of information not publicly available on the web, so Google is not the definite answer for every question (yet!)

[jno]

trt, you don't put things on Google as such, it's just a search engine trawling other sites - including AB. So you could begin an AB thread that has the information you want publicised about, say, manned missions to Pluto (as long as it's not advertising) and pretty quickly any Google search for "manned missions to Pluto" would come up as one of the results.

[trt]

Thanks everybody,

very interesting replies, its certainly mind boggling, and in another 10 years, will be even more.