谷歌七宗罪

    谷歌（Google）是上天给我们所有人的恩赐。有了它，无论文化程度高低，都可以在谷歌上了解自己不懂的东西。

    如果善用谷歌提供的知识宝库【当然还有雅虎（Yahoo），或者必应（Bing），但是相比于谷歌，你懂的】，你就能从容应对一次有挑战的谈话或会议。但同时谷歌的“人肉”能力也会把你剥得干干净净，展示在人前，无论你有多小的错误或多大的成就。俗话说，能力越大，责任越大，但是谷歌有的时候也会把我们引上邪路。就在本周，《纽约》（New York）杂志写道，拒绝用谷歌“约炮”已经形成了一场“新禁欲活动”。下面谨列出过于依赖谷歌所导致的“七宗罪”。

    贪婪：对知识的渴求导致犯错

    人们常说，机会总是青睐有准备的人，然而《财富》杂志（Fortune）总编辑苏安迪却因为准备得太充分而吃了个大亏。当时他正与雪佛龙（Chevron）公司的CEO约翰•沃特森一起用餐，苏安迪问沃特森在圣迪亚哥教士队的董事会中扮演了怎样的角色。事实上苏安迪是在吃这顿饭之前用谷歌搜索了一下约翰•沃特森的名字，然后在维基百科的一个页面上发现这支球队的董事会里赫然列着约翰•沃特森的名字。但事实上，这两个人只是重名，担任球队董事的是另一个约翰•沃特森。

    沃特森的属下马上去追查了这个消息的原始来源，现在维基百科上的这个词条已经被修改了过来。但在《财富》杂志社却始终有一种淡淡的背叛感挥之不去。毕竟记者们如果没了谷歌还能干什么呢？但是谷歌总是爱把维基百科的搜索结果排在前面。现在我们对维基的信任已经动摇了——或者说至少苏安迪对维基的信任动摇了。

    暴食：知道得太多了

    有时，大家可能会发疯似地谷歌任何东西，比如你的朋友、你的老板、你老板的小三、你老板的老板、你朋友的老板的小三的老板的狗（并不是说我们真的这样做过）……有时你希望了解的事情未必是你需要知道的，有时有些事情你本不该知道，但一旦知道了又忘不掉。这就是所谓的“信息消化不良”。比如《财富》的一个实习生曾经在谷歌里“人肉”很多人的名字，最后竟然发现他一个大学同学的父亲是个登记在案的性侵犯者。

    色欲：网络激情泛滥

    如果你还单身的话，那么大多数时候，你抱着认识别人的目的上谷歌，肯定是为了干一些羞羞的事。比如疯狂在Facebook上看异性的照片，一条一条地查看十来页的搜索结果，或是偷看一下别人的Instagram账户（如果是公开的）。但是如果你真的交了好运，与你搜到的网友见了面，你又会遇到一个两难问题：当对方告诉你她的一些隐私时，你是该假装惊讶，还是承认你已经知道了？因为在谷歌的帮助下，你已经知道了她的大学校友，她喜欢的颜色，她的家庭住址，她家车库门口的小路铺的是什么样的石子（这要感谢街景地图）……我们暂时说到这儿。

    Google is a godsend for all of us, from those who stutter and stumble through life to even the most knowledgeable of folks looking to confirm their facts and figures.

    A well-placed nugget of information courtesy of Google GOOG 0.22% (or Yahoo, sure, or Bing, but come on—you use Google) can prepare you for a challenging conversation or nervy meeting, and it can display for you, stripped bare, any person’s minor errors and major accomplishments.

    But with great power comes great responsibility, and sometimes Google leads us astray. Just this week, New York magazine wrote that resisting from Googling a potential date is “the new abstinence.” Here are the seven deadly sins that come along with relying too heavily on the G-force.

    Greed: When your thirst for knowledge leads to errors

    They say fortune favors the well prepared, but whenFortune managing editor Andy Serwer sat down to dinner with Chevron CVX -0.43% CEO John Watson, preparation backfired. Serwer asked Watson about his position on the board of the San Diego Padres, a factoid he’d picked up doing pre-dinner research on Wikipedia, a page he had been directed to through The Big G. Turns out that’s another John Watson. Oops.

    Watson’s team at Chevron has hunted down the original source and the Wiki entry has since been changed, but here at Fortune, a vague feeling of betrayal lingers in the air. After all, where would reporters be without Google? But Google gives preference to Wikipedia, and Wiki now hath poisoned our trust. Or at least Serwer’s.

    Gluttony: When you gather too much information

    Sometimes, you might go on a rampage and Google everything. Your friends. Your boss. Your boss’s significant other. Their boss. Your friend’s boss’s significant other’s boss’s dog (not that we’ve ever done such a thing). Sometimes you learn things you really didn’t need to know—things you, perhaps, shouldn’t know, but can never quite forget. It’s TMI. It’s a little like the time a Fortune summer intern started to dump names into the Googlesphere only to find out that a college friend’s father was a registered sex offender.

    Lust: When researching a romantic interest gets creepy

    If you’re single, many of your Google hunts may be fueled by… non-platonic interest. It can include Facebook photo binges, clicking through 10 pages’ worth of search results, and sneaking a peek at someone’s Instagram account (if public). But then when you actually run into, or go out with, the object of your search affections, you face a real dilemma: feign surprise at the personal things they tell you, or acknowledge you already know? Thanks to Google, you already know their college alma mater; their favorite color; their street address; and the exact pattern of their cobbled driveway (thanks, Streetview)… we’ll stop there.