When I work with my students, I’m always floored by the way in which they get to websites. You’d think that they’d know to type the website into the address bar – and some do – but often they find it easier to just go to Google and “search” for MPOW/Facebook/YouTube/etc.. Bookmarks? Delicious? Wha????
So when I read stories that list the top searches and include terms like “Facebook” and “MySpace” and “Wikipedia”, my skeptic level skyrockets. My guess is that the vast majority of those searches are people just going to the site. Now, this could be considered a ‘search’, but to me, it’s not really searching – searching is looking for something you don’t know, or for additional information about a topic. Not (as in the case of my students) going to a site and using Google to get there.
Venn Librarian 