Great point. With the internet I can find an immediate answer to nearly every question I have. When I can't, I become surprised and frustrated by the internet's "failure" to deliver. That's probably a lot different from the past, when people spent long hours in pursuit of information, and likely often resigned themselves to never knowing certain things. But ignorance is bliss, right? Information overload is a problem in its own right.
Yes, well said. Perhaps another way of putting it is that we seek something we hope to find, but search for something we expect to find. And maybe stated in these terms our use of internet search rather than internet seek tells us something about our changed relationship with information.
It is curious. I think seek refers to searching outwardly for something, while search refers to a more introspective examination, or looking within something. If you're in need of a needle, you will seek one out. Unless you're positive there's one contained somewhere within this haystack, in which case you'll search the haystack for it. Your finding process is now heavily focused on one space, rather than open-ended.
So, originally in computers the term "search" correctly referred to finding a given string of text within a single file. Actually the needle/haystack analogy has been used for years in reference to that kind of search. Later, the database allowed similar functionality, only instead of searching within one file, you searched within a larger array of associated data. And of course, the modern search engine is little more than a really massive database, so it's easy to see why we still say "search."
Because technically speaking, we're searching for something within Google's database, rather than a less-focused seeking of the same. Hey, it's been too long since I wrote a madeupical etymology, that felt good!
You're right. I suppose my point was that "to search for" is usurping "to seek". You're much more likely to search for information now than to seek it, compared with 20 years ago. Er, I think.
Has anyone else noticed how this charming irregular past participle is rapidly being usurped in the active sense by 'searched'? Its demise is perhaps being hastened by the internet-inspired upsurge in usage of the verb 'to search for'. You don't hear "I sought the information on Google" - only "I searched for the information".
But 'sought' remains in the sense of 'generally desired' - e.g. "Accord sought on children's health bill" (headline from Boston.com).
Thanks! I was inspired by yarb.
Beautiful, mollusque...
*following the conversation with great enjoyment*
We seek someone when they are not lost, but we don't know who they are; we search for someone when they are lost, and we do know who they are.
Sort of like saying "I searched for the information, but I was not able to find what I sought."
Great point. With the internet I can find an immediate answer to nearly every question I have. When I can't, I become surprised and frustrated by the internet's "failure" to deliver. That's probably a lot different from the past, when people spent long hours in pursuit of information, and likely often resigned themselves to never knowing certain things. But ignorance is bliss, right? Information overload is a problem in its own right.
Yes, well said. Perhaps another way of putting it is that we seek something we hope to find, but search for something we expect to find. And maybe stated in these terms our use of internet search rather than internet seek tells us something about our changed relationship with information.
It is curious. I think seek refers to searching outwardly for something, while search refers to a more introspective examination, or looking within something. If you're in need of a needle, you will seek one out. Unless you're positive there's one contained somewhere within this haystack, in which case you'll search the haystack for it. Your finding process is now heavily focused on one space, rather than open-ended.
So, originally in computers the term "search" correctly referred to finding a given string of text within a single file. Actually the needle/haystack analogy has been used for years in reference to that kind of search. Later, the database allowed similar functionality, only instead of searching within one file, you searched within a larger array of associated data. And of course, the modern search engine is little more than a really massive database, so it's easy to see why we still say "search."
Because technically speaking, we're searching for something within Google's database, rather than a less-focused seeking of the same. Hey, it's been too long since I wrote a madeupical etymology, that felt good!
You're right. I suppose my point was that "to search for" is usurping "to seek". You're much more likely to search for information now than to seek it, compared with 20 years ago. Er, I think.
Correct me if I'm wrong (I probably am) but isn't sought the past-tense form of seek? Therefore...
After you seek, you have sought.
After you search, you have searched.
Right?
Has anyone else noticed how this charming irregular past participle is rapidly being usurped in the active sense by 'searched'? Its demise is perhaps being hastened by the internet-inspired upsurge in usage of the verb 'to search for'. You don't hear "I sought the information on Google" - only "I searched for the information".
But 'sought' remains in the sense of 'generally desired' - e.g. "Accord sought on children's health bill" (headline from Boston.com).