Reflective Searching

I would consider myself to be an intermediate Googler with a tendency towards horizontal information seeking.  As an immigrant into the Google generation I find that I have developed similar searching styles to the kids that grew up with Google. In the ciber briefing paper, The Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future, the Google generation is described as as a group that will scan, flick and 'power browse' their way through digital content to find an answer.  Is this a bad thing?  Well... yes and no.  Limiting myself to skimming countless Internet pages will not provide me with the depth of knowledge needed to continue as a media specialist/teacher.  It will however keep me abreast of the information that is out there.  The trick will be to find the happy medium that allows me to glean important bits of knowledge along with the depth of content integration that I will need to be a successful lifelong learner.  This is where my PLN comes in handy.  It allows me to aggregate a large amount of  content into one location.  If I choose to research further I can.  What I need to do is become a better searcher.  The Even Better Search Results video opened my eyes to power of Google.  who knew you could locate something on the Internet based upon it's color?  Google surprises me every day.  

One of my former coworkers sent me a sticker one day.  It had the letters LMGTFY.  I had no idea what it meant so like everyone else in the world I Googled it.  Come to find out it means "Let Me Google That For You".  These six letters, in a manner of speaking, proved to me that Google had become a fixture in everyday life.  I mean think about it...when you want to look up something on the Internet you Google it.  In many cases Google has become synonymous with the Internet.  If Google has permeated so much of our lives what else are they doing?  The filter bubble Ted Talk video opened my eyes to a little bit more of how Google and other search engines work.  I do not want my Google deciding what I get to see when I search for a topic.  I want to be able to filter my own results based on criteria I set.  Maybe the creators of these bubbles could give me the choice of whether or not to filter my content.