On some projects, I need to do a lot of secondary research. You could call it desk research.
The web has made some of this exponentially easier to do -- like figuring out interesting trends around the world. No idea how you would have done that kind of work in 1980, say.
The web has also made some of it exponentially harder to do -- like finding authoritative information on a topic. You search something like "customer loyalty" and you could spend a year sifting through meaningless dreck. The only alternative was expensive library-type document repositories and searches, which took a lot of time, and weren't always that productive. [For me, a non-librarian, and never any good at that stuff in university]
Then [cue the heavenly sounds and light] I discovered Google Scholar. Where have you been all my life! Google Scholar lets you search for a topic and only gives you academic type publications. And you can sometimes get really good stuff about a single author.
Where is Google Tech Support?
So Dear Mr. Google, we want -- we need -- Google Tech. It would only give us authoritative answers on questions like "how do I install a new video card" or "what is the meaning of error 404". [I know these are feeble examples, but you get the picture.]
We have all, I think, spent time on the web trying to find an answer to a question that may well be simple, really simple, if you are a computer engineer. And has probably been answered somewhere in some knowledge base. But we can't find it. We get a bunch of *%^&$^%$* and you KNOW what I'm talking about here.
So I think the answer is Google Tech -- a search engine that looks only for authoritative things regarding technology questions and answers.
What do you think? Could you build it? I bet you could, you seem to be able to build almost anything. If you build it, we will all come, I promise.
Thank you Mr. Google.
