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There are more than a dozen Famous Grazing Blogs residing on the cybersphere. Some are dormant and some very active. They all link back here to the Granddaddy of our blogs, founding in May of 2004.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

The Curse of Google and the NYT

Every Sunday morning I do my best to get through the Sunday New York Times.
I used to do this by lugging the the ten or so pounds of newsprint from my front door to the living room. There I would strategically divide the paper and its content into three piles.

The first pile would be what I would attempt to read this morning and later in the day.

The second pile would include the New York Times Magazine and Books in Review and whatever other sections through which I may want to browse some time in the near future.

The third pile would go immediately into the recycle bin. This, of course was the largest.


Then I started reading the NYT on my laptop. This seemed so much easier, not to mention good for trees. Good for trees, maybe. Easier, yes and no.

The yes parts are mostly obvious. Let me go for the negative aspects:

Google.

I just read an article on self publishing.

It mentions several areas visitable on the internet. Thankfully, the NYT has a haphazard policy of including hyperlinks in their articles. I could see why. They don't want the read to change channels. However, those of us addicted to Google and Yahoo just go off to either of the two and look up the connection anyway.

The one hyperlink in the article, to the Books in Print-Professional site probably paid the NYT to be included in the article. I know I almost always go to any hyperlink they include, so it's probably a good investment.

At first, I would Google every little thing that I might find of interest. Then I found myself taking an enormous amount of time to read the smallest of articles. I now use a pile method for googling similar to my previous bulk paper method:

If I find a topic I believe I need to see to enhance the meaning of the article, I Google it into a tab on the same Firefox window. If it may be something I will find interesting later, I Google it to a new window and minimize the window. (Ooops! off to church. See part 2)

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