Old Hat

Here's a story that I guess is old hat already, if it's in the Guardian. [Quick summary: people typing "I am lonely" into Google were all ending up on the same discussion board and sharing their feelings - and getting abuse, of course.]

I won't rant on the subject of loneliness, because it's a little bit too much like talking about the quality of your stools, but I do think it's interesting that people are making use of Google in odd ways such as this.

I know from looking at how people reach this site that search skills are lacking in the wider community. The search string "I am lonely" only contains one word that Google will pay any attention to, anyway, but even so: the idea of just typing your feelings into a search engine seems a little ancient, a little primitive.

An early human going on a hunt for meat might sketch pictures on the wall of his cave the night before; an ancient Greek would have gone to the oracle. "Three coins in the fountain," goes the song. It's all the same kind of thing. Google as the Oracle, the wishing well, the wailing wall. I know I've typed things into the search box, repeatedly, with little chance of actual results, like little prayers of faint hope.