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623
624

Life before Google. (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by Labelmeblonde

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[–]string97bean 54 points55 points ago

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I worked for a library pre-internet and people used to call in with trivia questions and I had to look them up. Oh how times have changed.

[–]atillathehunniee 8 points9 points ago

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I did work study in a library. whenever someone asked our reference librarian anything, she had to find them an answer no matter how ridiculous the question. but we had Internet by then.

[–]akhokhar 3 points4 points ago

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hahah oh my gosh that's terrible? what was the weirdest question you got?

[–]string97bean 8 points9 points ago

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There was an old woman who called at least once a day with a random question. She once called and asked the name of a local broadcaster, but she couldnt remember what station he worked for, she just described what he looked like.

[–]dudedominicano -5 points-4 points ago

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I also call this bullshit, because even thought google improve web search it did not invent it. There were search engines before... So this post should state "Life before the Internet"... Even thought most people relate google with internet i expect redditors to be smarted than that and know the difference...

[–]shigal777 9 points10 points ago

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And also, that is not how it was before the internet, we had libraries full of information. And animals never speak like that, only people do. I also call bullshit.

Come on, Reddit, I expect you to be smarted than that.

[–]Carl_Wheathers -3 points-2 points ago

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English probably isn't his first language, gives him a beak.

[–]budbuds 0 points1 point ago

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Or life before dudesominicano

[–]Ghost_Fetus 31 points32 points ago

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Or you could visit, like, a library...

[–]ipn8bit 16 points17 points ago

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They are sitting in front of a TV. That would be out of the question.

[–]kimshoo 0 points1 point ago

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My parents had encyclopedias... to this sst, my dad will only google if he can't find it in the encyclopedia.

[–]Nikoras 2 points3 points ago

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That sounds like a huge waste of time.

[–]kimshoo 1 point2 points ago

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Lol ok. But don't you miss the smell of books?

[–]Nikoras 3 points4 points ago

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Books are great, I still read them for entertainment. They're just terrible for looking up miscellaneous information. To update the content you have to buy a whole new one, and to find what I'm looking for I have to search for much longer than I would on a computer. Plus with wikipedia you can always find more information in links and check other sources.

[–]Lasereth 1 point2 points ago

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Yeah because making yourself presentable, driving your car to the nearest library (for me, about 8 miles, and I live in a suburban area)(which also costs gas money, which would be about $3.00 on average)(also have to include car depreciation due to mileage, plus other annual variable costs related to traveling), then hunting through a dozen books to find out why they call it "riding shotgun" is totally fun and efficient.

[–]dstz 1 point2 points ago*

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Popular comment that sounds good on paper (ahah) but terribly wrong nonetheless.

I'm currently very interested in Punjabi cuisine. There is no book in my native language, let alone at the local library (or even in a larger town) that will give me the rundown of major Punjabi gravies used in traditional indian restaurants. It simply doesn't exist - and there's actually very few web pages in English (none in French) with that type of information, and no more than a handful with the pointedly correct information for the three major types of Punjabi restaurants gravies and how to use or mix them.

edit: i maybe need to make the point in a more general way. It's, ironically enough, a common trope of redditors to dismiss the idea that the net actually helps to generate MORE information ("it's surely only for Reddit 4chan and porn", is assumed here with great pleasure for some reason) than what was conceivable in a paper based medium. The low cost of sharing information and worldwide availability of such shared knowledge creates a wealth of very technical/specific data that has, very plainly, no equivalent in paper form.

[–]Ghost_Fetus 0 points1 point ago

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I'm only pointing out that there were and are venues to retrieve information other than the internet. Do I think the internet is by far the best method? Absolutely. But to dismiss the quest for knowledge simply because you don't have internet (which a lot of the world does not necessarily have a stable connection to) is a sad thing.

I think you have an excellent point. There are topics, like your example, that would be nearly impossible to research at a local or even university level library in any meaningful way. But to call my assertion 'terribly wrong' is inaccurate. You can find information there, and people did, for centuries.

[–]dstz 0 points1 point ago

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Ok i see your point, and glad you see mine.

[–]reallybigshark 4 points5 points ago

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That would not help you find out who particular actors are married to.

[–]SPEECHLESSaphasic 0 points1 point ago

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Yea, but by the time you actually get to the library you might have forgotten or lost interest. Also, if you have a sucky library you're shit out of luck.

[–]thereal_me 0 points1 point ago

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sucky library

The bane of my formative years.

[–]drmoo66 1 point2 points ago

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"Hi, I'd like a book on Airplanes!"
"I'm sorry, we don't have any. Here's a nice one on Ducks instead."

[–][deleted] ago*

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[deleted]

[–]Carl_Wheathers 1 point2 points ago

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I remember, when I was a kid, I used to go through every volume of the encyclopedia set we had just to learn everything I could about everything. My friends would hate me because I'd come to school on Monday explaining how cereal was made in Detroit, or where we existed in the galaxy, or how our brain would be able to separate the electromagnetic spectral waves into colors.

[–]wallyfoo 2 points3 points ago

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Please link to the original artist.

[–]CobraJones 0 points1 point ago*

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More precisely, this. The February 19, 2010 comic is the one in question.

[–]AllYourBase3 3 points4 points ago

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There was always altavista

[–]aggressive_napkins 45 points46 points ago

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A repost... of a repost... of a repost...

[–]Dontbitchaboutrepost 24 points25 points ago

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Just swinging by to show you guys this!

[–][deleted] -5 points-4 points ago

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Hey, 20 million people, listen to these rules that hold you accountable to nothing because about 15 people want you to. Thanks, signed assholes of reddit.

[–]timisblue 4 points5 points ago

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Of a joke someone told.

[–]ahlsn 2 points3 points ago

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Who retold it from his friend

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points ago

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it's reposts all the way down.

[–]Teekoo 3 points4 points ago

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It's reddit, there is nothing new here. This one time I saw a post I hadn't seen before, but nope, Chuck Testa.

[–]ipaddy 7 points8 points ago

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They're coming from inside the website!

[–]jersully 0 points1 point ago

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But somehow I don't get tired of this one.

[–]GORILLADIX 0 points1 point ago

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We need to go deeper!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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Why is this always the top comment?

[–]Sneezes 0 points1 point ago

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i have never seen it before

[–]unholyravenger 0 points1 point ago

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Look repost will happen a lot! The community is contently growing and some people have not seen this comic. Just ignore reposts all you need to do is move your finger about a inch.

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points ago

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So? I've seen this at least ten times and I still think it's funny!

[–]Boko_ -2 points-1 points ago

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.. of a who gives a fuck.

[–]Mile_Marker 4 points5 points ago

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and that's what encyclopedias are for.

[–]kinshark 2 points3 points ago

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I don't care that this always gets reposted, it's one of my very favorite comics ever. I printed out last year and hung it up at work so that SOMETHING could make me chuckle there.

[–]Philthy42 6 points7 points ago

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Last night after the Gwar-B-Q in Richmond, I was talking to Mike Bishop, the original Beefcake the Mighty in Gwar, who performed a song with them, and also performed with his band Kepone.

I told him I had seen Kepone in 1995, and was confused that some of their gear said "Property of Gwar" on it. It was probably a year later I found out Bishop had left Gwar and was now in Kepone. I said to him "This was 1995, I couldn't just go home and Google the answer. I didn't even own a computer".

Yes, there was a time where you could be confused by something and not get an answer for a while. Or ever.

[–][deleted] ago

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[deleted]

[–]Philthy42 4 points5 points ago

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Every thread. Every submission. There is a little kid being a douchebag.

[–]frank26080115 0 points1 point ago

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I bet Reddit's readership would be cut in half if people didn't post these stories.

[–]Dekodev 3 points4 points ago*

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Life before google we used a broad array of search engines, now we use one....

[–]f33dback 5 points6 points ago

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Fixed it. http://i.imgur.com/L2hi0.jpg

[–]5k3k73k 0 points1 point ago

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They weren't nearly as effective as Google though. For a short while in '97-98ish, before most other people knew of Google, I was an intellectual god (on the internet).

[–]Infermon 4 points5 points ago

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Library...

[–]gerbal 8 points9 points ago*

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Has this been submitted before? Yes, a lot.

[–]dnew 1 point2 points ago

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One of my favorite comics. Between this and GPS (backed by up-to-date annotated maps), this stuff is Star Trek compared to 30 years ago.

[–]SgtSmackdaddy 1 point2 points ago

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A better comic related to this: http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/03/09

[–]fuckcancer 1 point2 points ago

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How did we used to access wikipedia before google?

[–]maulingpastry 1 point2 points ago

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Fucking reposts.

[–]vnkid 1 point2 points ago

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My main sources used to be yahoo, dogpile, and factmonster--

[–]Ishyotos 2 points3 points ago

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Meh, I managed with Lycos.

[–]B_Provisional 1 point2 points ago

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Yeah, tracking down and reading primary sources was so awful.

[–]doc_brietz 1 point2 points ago

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This deserves to be shopped for great justice!

[–]akumadiavolo 1 point2 points ago

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This makes no fucking sense, Google was not the first search engine. not even close.

[–]jjrs 4 points5 points ago

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It was the first search engine worth shit, though. People forget just how bad the other ones were. Finding the result you needed was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

[–]Otterfan 1 point2 points ago

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A haystack of porn.

[–]akumadiavolo -1 points0 points ago

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No, I never had an issue. Maybe you just suck at searching.

[–]jjrs 0 points1 point ago

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You should go back to using Lycos, like real men do.

[–]Commandeath 0 points1 point ago

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I remember using infoseek.com primarily. Especially for sexy pics of celebs of the time (gillian anderson, jennifer love hewitt, pamela anderson!), printing out move lists for MKII, and help with Doom.

[–]akumadiavolo -1 points0 points ago

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My main one was goto.com, I know I used other ones, but I can't remember them now.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points ago

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That's what libraries where for.

[–]blink-me 14 points15 points ago

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libraries where for

Maybe you should visit one.

[–]Realworld 1 point2 points ago

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Nah, just a dictionary.

[–]cepheus42 0 points1 point ago

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I love that. Good stuff. And so what if it's been submitted before, I had never seen it so it's new for me. :-)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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I feel the same way now. I always wonder about something enough for it to gnaw at my brain, but not enough to google it.

[–]fairwayks 0 points1 point ago

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I used to do nothing but flip through encyclopedias when I went to the library. It was like hyper-texting for me.

[–]BR61661 0 points1 point ago

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I used to think of numbers id like to know more about, Thanks Cinco

[–]Eye_Cue 0 points1 point ago

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Now do: "Life before Wikipedia"

[–]moxley 0 points1 point ago

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Altavista.

[–]yze 0 points1 point ago

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And ill go with a LIFE BEFORE GOOGLE [FIXED]

[–]FiredFox 0 points1 point ago

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"Fuck all, y'all" - Yahoo.

[–]fail_whale_fan_mail 0 points1 point ago

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Life with google:

I just thought of something I'd like to know more about. I guess I'll look it up on google. But first let me check Facebook and Reddit and... wait what was I looking up again? Aw forget it. I'll just upvote this funny cat picture instead.

[–]LagMan 0 points1 point ago

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life with internet you end up seeing the same images over and over and over

[–]Gurt_mlt 0 points1 point ago

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Relevant

[–]this_is_weird 0 points1 point ago

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Alternative view on this

[–]this_is_weird 0 points1 point ago

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Sometimes I wonder: did you guys have books at home when you were a child or are my parents special on that point?

I read the shit out of the old LIFE series of science books when I was a kid. We had an alphabetical encyclopedia in 10 volumes that I would browse. We had a dictionary in practically every room. Atlases of all kind. History books, from the most generic Histories of the world to specific books about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Mayas... Thesauri, compilations of quotes. Also a lot of stuff on dinosaurs.

It wasn't the internet, it didn't have its scope and its quickness, but I was very capable of answering my questions.

[–]Trentos 0 points1 point ago

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Freedom of Information. Our success depends on it.

[–]jigby61 0 points1 point ago

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Silly dog swears are for rabbits

[–]panda_slayer5 0 points1 point ago

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I've seen this do damn many times, even in the old Digg days! REPOST! REPOST! REPOST! downvote!

[–]Dr_Jackson 0 points1 point ago

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Read the title, thought to myself "Seen this comic before". Then clicked; I was not wrong. :)

[–]Moklok 0 points1 point ago

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Before google, I used Altavista.

[–]redwoodtree 0 points1 point ago

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Chuck and Beans is an awesome comic and everyone should read it: http://www.shoeboxblog.com/

[–]not_a_drip 0 points1 point ago

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Glad I had my Encarta '95 CD ROM

[–]AdonisChrist 0 points1 point ago

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Now that's not true. You could Ask Jeeves.

[–]Fermol 0 points1 point ago

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Life before reposts: http://i.imgur.com/YQcdf.png

[–]bitchkat 0 points1 point ago

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archie.

[–]magnus91 0 points1 point ago

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we just used altavista.com

[–]thegoodlifeofmusic 0 points1 point ago

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what girls say when I tell them I want their number.... The End.

[–]cafezinho 0 points1 point ago

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Life before Wikipedia

[–]NanoCow 0 points1 point ago

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like every 10 repost this makes it to the frontpage again

[–]thebiglouboo -3 points-2 points ago

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A repost, and its called get a fucking book

[–]gengen360 -3 points-2 points ago

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Me being a chronic-googler makes it even funnier xD

[–]SenatorJ0eBiden -1 points0 points ago

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twas a dark existence

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