Hot, Flat, and Inaccurate

Jesse Walker | October 27, 2008

Call me shallow, but when I read the Thomas Friedman column that Ron Bailey blogged below, I was less interested in the points Friedman was trying to make than in the error in this passage:

They tell you that they have this thing called a "search engine," and they are naming it -- get this -- "Google." They tell you to type in any word in this box on a computer screen and -- get this -- hit a button labeled "I'm Feeling Lucky." Up comes a bunch of Web sites related to that word.

I'm not surprised that Thomas Friedman doesn't know what the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button does. But surely the Times employs copy editors who do?

Comments

|10.27.08 @ 11:46AM|#

Somebody in my office tried to send me an Internet the other day and it just got here today

Elemenope|10.27.08 @ 11:47AM|#

It's not shallow to take ol' Tommy Friedman to task for one of his many "fact gaffes".

|10.27.08 @ 11:50AM|#

A well deserved Gotcha!

|10.27.08 @ 11:52AM|#

Perhaps Mr. Friendman's most recent cab driver is a Yahoo man.

|10.27.08 @ 11:52AM|#

That's not what "I'm feeling lucky" means. You guys are using it wrong.

anarch|10.27.08 @ 11:52AM|#

He has the premium edition.

Dello|10.27.08 @ 12:25PM|#

I never use the "I'm feeling Lucky" button, because I'm afraid that Lt. Callahan will shoot me....

|10.27.08 @ 12:32PM|#

Google Search: Series of tubes.
I'm Feeling Lucky: Big truck

Mike Laursen|10.27.08 @ 12:48PM|#

I think I'll have to call you shallow. :-) Or maybe I'm not following the point of your post. Why is it worthy of comment that he confused the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button with the "Google Search" button? I think he may have even known the difference but was using artistic license for (slightly) humorous effect.

Mike Laursen|10.27.08 @ 12:53PM|#

Actually, now that I've read more of Friedman's columns it's obvious that he was intentionally going for humor.

Dello|10.27.08 @ 12:54PM|#

Taking my post a step further: Clint Eastwoods birthday, they should change the button to read "Are You Feeling Lucky?". The "Punk" would be optional....

Jesse Walker|10.27.08 @ 12:59PM|#

Mike: The column certainly attempted to be funny, but I don't see any reason to think the button mixup was part of that.

|10.27.08 @ 1:08PM|#

I'm afraid that Lt. Callahan will shoot me....

Was he the guy at My Lai?

Mike Laursen|10.27.08 @ 1:11PM|#

Read it again substituting "Google Search" everywhere he wrote the phrase "I'm Feeling Lucky". His somewhat humorous scenario now falls completely flat. The reader would think to themselves, "We'll, of course, a search engine would have a Search button."

Jesse Walker|10.27.08 @ 1:14PM|#

Sure, the "I'm Feeling Lucky" phrase is funnier. And he could have used it accurately if he changed "Up comes a bunch of Web sites related to that word" to "Up comes a Web site related to that word."

alan|10.27.08 @ 1:17PM|#

No fan of Tom, here, (seems pretty obvious that his mono obsession with Green is midlife crises in action and Greenspeak is just a means to obtain hot but hairy young tail), but it seems to me he is simplifying things to avoid cluttering his column with asides with both the banking analogy that better describes venture capitalist and the 'I'm feeling lucky' remark.

zoltan|10.27.08 @ 1:20PM|#

What a pointless article. Who gives a shit?

Citizen Nothing|10.27.08 @ 1:21PM|#

"And he could have used it accurately if he changed "Up comes a bunch of Web sites related to that word" to "Up comes a Web site related to that word.""

Jesse,
You're assuming that some copy editor didn't insert that very error into Friedman's original.

Franklin Harris|10.27.08 @ 1:25PM|#

but it seems to me he is simplifying things to avoid cluttering his column with asides with both the banking analogy that better describes venture capitalist and the 'I'm feeling lucky' remark.

If Friedman didn't have a long track record of coming up with what he thinks are terribly clever metaphors for "the way the world works" that turn out to be horribly mistaken because Friedman doesn't actually know what he's talking about, I might be more inclined to believe your interpretation.

But Friedman is a proven hack.

BDB|10.27.08 @ 1:27PM|#

Come on, you guys just lack the Moustache of Understanding.

alan|10.27.08 @ 1:38PM|#

But Friedman is a proven hack.

There is that, but when he is one of the few MSM libs saying, 'Wooah, let's put the silverware away and not salivate over plans to slice up and redistribute the golden goose of the banking system', I'm less inclined to call him a hack on that particular occasion.

|10.27.08 @ 1:42PM|#

Taking my post a step further: Clint Eastwoods birthday, they should change the button to read "Are You Feeling Lucky?". The "Punk" would be optional....

"Do you feel lucky?", surely.

Paul|10.27.08 @ 1:42PM|#

I'm not surprised that Thomas Friedman doesn't know what the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button does. But surely the Times employs copy editors who do?

Why? To them, Google is a vulgar tool for the hoi polloi. All the real media types use LexisNexis.

|10.27.08 @ 2:12PM|#

joe, LOL!

Hot, Flat, and Inaccurate: I prefer Hot, Busty, and Inaccurate.

|10.27.08 @ 3:13PM|#

And they say I shouldn't be president because I don't use email! I guess Tom Friedman shouldn't be president either.

|10.27.08 @ 6:45PM|#

"Hot, Flat, and Inaccurate: I prefer Hot, Busty, and Inaccurate."

"Hon, why are you sucking on that?"