It sounds like a literary device where the author asks himself a question that he can then answer
Don't be silly. The author chooses a question as the title of an article to evoke the endless well of opinions that is Slashdot. {/sarcasm}
Seriously, though. Since when is it looked down upon to use literary devices in your blog post? Do you really expect to read an article with a question in the title without reading the author's proposed answer? What did you think the article was about???
I think the problem here is that Google has produced such a fine basic search engine that has already become the dominant choice. Now they don't know when to quit and will keep trying to "improve" it even if these changes aren't improvements at all.
Disagree. I think the "problem" is that you are a power user. Google made google instant so that the infinite masses of non-tech-savvy grandmas can hunt-and-peck only a few keys, and end up with the search results they were looking for (since they were likely looking for the same thing as all of the other grandmas) without having to move their arthritic hands to move the mouse and click "go" (since they probably don't realize that you can just press "enter").
Slashdot Mirror
And both of these existed LONG before 1999. How the hell did this get a patent?
The highlight all feature has existed nearly as long as (if not longer than?) the founders of Google have been alive.
It sounds like a literary device where the author asks himself a question that he can then answer
Don't be silly. The author chooses a question as the title of an article to evoke the endless well of opinions that is Slashdot. {/sarcasm}
Seriously, though. Since when is it looked down upon to use literary devices in your blog post? Do you really expect to read an article with a question in the title without reading the author's proposed answer? What did you think the article was about???
I think the problem here is that Google has produced such a fine basic search engine that has already become the dominant choice. Now they don't know when to quit and will keep trying to "improve" it even if these changes aren't improvements at all.
Disagree. I think the "problem" is that you are a power user. Google made google instant so that the infinite masses of non-tech-savvy grandmas can hunt-and-peck only a few keys, and end up with the search results they were looking for (since they were likely looking for the same thing as all of the other grandmas) without having to move their arthritic hands to move the mouse and click "go" (since they probably don't realize that you can just press "enter").
Warning: slight exaggeration used above.
Parent is modded funny, but it is so true if you think about it.
the search giant is working on ways to push relevant info to users before they have even asked for it
Push "relevant" info to users "before they ask for it"? Isn't that called advertising? Except now they're going to pretend that we actually want it.