Hanging out with friends last night we were trying to figure out who directed a music video. One person would try to look it up and then another person, getting agitated, would take the computer and try to look it up etc. For me, this was the search that broke the camel’s back. 

Doing a web search is something we all do every day. Dozens of times per day. But we don’t really think about how we search, or how to optimize our searching. We figure, hey we get the answer eventually and that’s what counts. 

Over the summer Alexis Madrigal was writing an article about iceberg towing for The Atlantic Tech that required a lot of research which got him curious about the process of researching and in a Google+ post he walked through his search process. In turn, one of Google’s search researchers analyzed Alexis’ methods and suggested additional strategies that might help turn up more stuff. 

Some of these methods I would have thought to do, some I wouldn’t have. So how do you get better at searching? One way is A Google A Day. 

I’m going to try to do it every day and post my time here as a challenge. Like most people, I consider myself pretty good at Googling so I invite you to beat my time. Plus it’s an easy way to learn something new every day. 

Today’s question: Who was the first American president known to have sworn his oath of office on a book other than the Bible?

I got the answer in 1:41. Not bad but could have been better, I followed a red herring for a bit. Certainly an eminently beatable time.