Do you rely on information from the internet

J

Jeni

Senior Member
Not sure if anyone else has had these things happen or if it is just me.

When looking for an address online..... i was looking at a map to orient myself .........a little pie shop was listed not far from place sounded like somewhere i would like to visit.
I told my spouse so we both looked it up and found a website/ and mentions/ reviews on Yelp etc....
But when in that area........ guess what it is NOT there ... not sure if closed or moved or what ........but when we asked Siri for directions she took us to an empty lot.

This is not the first time have looked up restaurants we like to try odd or new off the wall places..... the hours/ and such on websites often are wrong or have changed....... menus not accurate as they took things off ....... few places shut down on certain days due to short staff etc ..... but they only had paper sign on their door but did not bother to put on website......WHY?

Years ago ..My spouse once told me lets go to a place we had before i was almost certain it had been taken down he said nope website still says there ... it was a car lot lol .........i got dressed up for nothing........

Many people NOW (unlike at the beginning of internet ) have basic skills that can update a website.... but so MANY seem not to bother to do it.

i wanted to try a new restaurant by my home for some reason was closed one Sunday so i assumed not open on Sundays but the next one it was etc....
i no longer trust websites to update............... i think if i go and they are closed even when it said was open i am not keep coming back it is tough to get a restaurant off the ground ..... i would like to at least try a place and give a small business a boost ............................................but i think i would have better luck with a Magic8 ball to get hours and directions.
 

Many businesses use a website maintenance company and things that need to be put on the website sometimes take awhile to get implemented. If a business needs to close for the day due to short staff, it won't make it to the website in time to let anyone know. If a business closes permanently, they won't bother to post it on their website, they just quit paying the maintenance company and the page goes dormant. Sometimes the webpage is the last thing on their mind and they forget about it altogether as they are too busy dealing with whatever is happening.
 

I use many sources on line to gather information...research...pictures...videos...about anything I am interested in. I am very aware of mis-information so I don't trust what I find. If it is real important I contact a real person by phone, or email. I have grown to enjoy my little chats with Microsofts Chat GPT-4. :)
 
caroln said:
Many businesses use a website maintenance company and things that need to be put on the website sometimes take awhile to get implemented. If a business needs to close for the day due to short staff, it won't make it to the website in time to let anyone know. If a business closes permanently, they won't bother to post it on their website, they just quit paying the maintenance company and the page goes dormant. Sometimes the webpage is the last thing on their mind and they forget about it altogether as they are too busy dealing with whatever is happening.
Click to expand...
I get if a place closes etc they simply do not think about it or do not care ......but there have been many where we went in asked about something on a site and they were like "wow that is still on there? "

it is more then a maintenance company issue many simply do not send in the update... and most can update themselves.
My thing is this is a representation of your company and if you are not going to stay up to date do not put it up or take it down.

many other groups here must maintain their own because items in almost real time are on theirs ... i just no longer trust many after a few instances where it is if they forgot they had this.
 
iu
 
@Ken N Tx funny
i do not expect things to be TRUE.................. just think it is a waste for businesses to do a half A$$ job in maintaining one avenue of advertisement or information on their business.
 
The other thing that happens is once information is on the internet it's gathered by many different search bots and used in many different places. It's hard (impossible) to remove it. I ran a site for a small local business that closed in 2008, when it closed we let the domain name expire and removed everything we had put up. If you do a related search today you will still find evidence that business is still in existence and at that same address.
 
It depends on the info I'm looking for. If it's a sports score I feel confident. If it's the hours of operation and location of a business I would still trust it because I haven't been burned so far. If it's news, forget it! :giggle:
 
Search engines display highly dated information alongside more current info. When it comes to places with Yelp or Trip Advisor reviews, zmenu, allmenus, doordash, etc., the information is often SERIOUSLY OUT OF DATE.

Most small businesses' websites are not maintained up to the minute (would need a dedicated webmaster to do that and even then some pages that the site deleted are still displayed on search engines). The secondary sites I listed above can be many years out of date.

As @iksentrik mentioned above, the Internet's memory seems to be forever, and search engines show old and new with equal weight. So, let the buyer beware.

The best bet is to locate a phone number on Yelp or similar, or on the business's own website, and call for current information.
 
I mostly see the Internet / Websites as click bate to get us to watch advertising product videos.
Basically its a World Wide Amazon / Ebay / UBids sales going on 24 / 7's. Is anything newsworthy
Edited anymore? Then ya got the talk-talk people. Blab-blab and more blab, on and on. I can
easily guess that ya accept the inconvenience or ignore it / put it on hold / hit the silence button?
Then you can pick the Dark Mode and change all the colors. Buy Blue editing glasses. If ya have
10 minutes you can find out who stars in most anything. ... Haha ... Did you know the International
Space station is designed for expansion during day time to + 250 degrees to near -200 degrees every
90 minutes. Basically a piece of junk fastened together for billions of Dollars over 23 years.

It's gets even better the more you look at stuff. Seri is supposed to be all-smart when its really stupid.
A collection of supposedly correct facts all jumbled into a missing dictionary. Your going the wrong way,
turn right go up that farm dirt lane to get to the place. Haha ... the other day there is a GPS car leading
an 18 wheeler with a 18' diameter round thing on the flatbed. their on Main street, can't get past power lines
etcetera and its trying to turn around, go back & blocking all the traffic for hours. The Car just kept going.
It had to back up 1.2 miles to turn around. 100 yards ever 10 minutes. ...All the Towns police and Fire
Department's turned out & DOT officers guiding the, well; A Clutterbucks! .....Haha
 
Last edited:
When you're lookigat Google Maps or Google street view...look at the bottom right of the page it will show you the date it was recorded.. sometimes the same street will have 2 different dates.

I've seen one end of a street be filmed in 2023, and the other end last time it was recorded was 2009, so if you're looking and seeing a business that was recorded in 2009, then there's every chance it will be gone. Better to check their website before making a trip
 
Yep, maybe go to the realty sites, put in the address and see the street photo and background realty info.
Sort of guide your way around it with the street views. Once you do that you figure you really don't need
to go there at all. Sure thats a WIN -WIN !! We really should get one of those 32' X 12' Hunter Lodges for guests
to camp out in.
 
Last edited:
THE PURE JOY OF THE INTERNET IS NONSENCE LIKE THE BELOW;

Let's say a guy named Fred is attracted to a woman named Martha. He asks her out to a movie; she accepts; they have a pretty good time. A few nights later he asks her out to dinner, and again they enjoy themselves. They continue to see each other regularly, and after a while neither one of them is seeing anybody else.

And then, one evening when they're driving home, a thought occurs to Martha, and, without really thinking, she says it aloud: "Do you realize that, as of tonight, we've been seeing each other for exactly six months?"

And then, there is silence in the pickup truck.

To Martha, it seems like a very loud silence. She thinks to herself: I wonder if it bothers him that I said that. Maybe he's been feeling confined by our relationship; maybe he thinks I'm trying to push him into some kind of obligation that he doesn't want, or isn't sure of.

And Fred is thinking: Gosh. Six months.

And Martha is thinking: But, hey, I'm not so sure I want this kind of relationship either. Sometimes I wish I had a little more space, so I'd have time to think about whether I really want us to keep going the way we are, moving steadily towards, I mean, where are we going? Are we just going to keep seeing each other at this level of intimacy? Are we heading toward marriage? Toward children? Toward a lifetime together? Am I ready for that level of commitment? Do I really even know this person?

And Fred is thinking: ...so that means it was...let's see...February when we started going out, which was right after I had my pickup at the dealer's, which means...lemme check the odometer...Whoa! I am way overdue for another $150 oil change here.

And Martha is thinking: He's upset. I can see it on his face. Maybe I'm reading this completely wrong. Maybe he wants more from our relationship, more intimacy, more commitment; maybe he has sensed - even before I sensed it - that I was feeling some reservations. Yes, I bet that's it. That's why he's so reluctant to say anything about his own feelings. He's afraid of being rejected.

And Fred is thinking: And I'm gonna have them look at the transmission again. I don't care what those morons say, it's still not shifting right. And they better not try to blame it on the cold weather this time. What cold weather? It's 87 degrees out, and this thing is shifting like a garbage truck, and I already paid those incompetent thieves $600.

And Martha is thinking: He's angry. And I don't blame him. I'd be angry, too. I feel so guilty, putting him through this, but I can't help the way I feel. I'm just not sure.

And Fred is thinking: They'll probably say it's only a 90-day warranty...scumballs.

And Martha is thinking: Maybe I'm just too idealistic, waiting for a knight to come riding up on his white horse, when I'm sitting right next to a perfectly good person, a person I enjoy being with, a person I truly do care about, a person who seems to truly care about me. A person who is in pain because of my self-centered, schoolgirl romantic fantasy.

And Fred is thinking: Warranty? They want a warranty? I'll give them a warranty. I'll take their warranty and stick it right up their...

"Fred," Martha says aloud.

"What?" says Fred, startled.

"Please don't torture yourself like this," she says, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. "Maybe I should never have...oh dear, I feel so..."(She breaks down, sobbing.)

"What?" says Fred.

"I'm such a fool," Martha sobs. "I mean, I know there's no knight. I really know that. It's silly. There's no knight, and there's no horse."

"There's no horse?" says Fred.

"You think I'm a fool, don't you?" Martha says.

"No!" says Fred, glad to finally know the correct answer.

"It's just that...it's that I...I need some time," Martha says.
(There is a 15-second pause while Fred, thinking as fast as he can, tries to come up with a safe response. Finally he comes up with one that he thinks might work.)

"Yes," he says. (Martha, deeply moved, touches his hand.)

"Oh, Fred, do you really feel that way?" she says.

"What way?" says Fred.

"That way about time," says Martha.

"Oh," says Fred. "Yes." (Martha turns to face him and gazes deeply into his eyes, causing him to become very nervous about what she might say next, especially if it involves a horse. At last she speaks.)

"Thank you, Fred," she says.

"Thank you," says Fred.

Then he takes her home, and she lies on her bed, a conflicted, tortured soul, and weeps until dawn, whereas when Fred gets back to his place, he opens a bag of Doritos, turns on the TV, and immediately becomes deeply involved in a rerun of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl between Boise State and Oklahoma. A tiny voice in the far recesses of his mind tells him that something major was going on back there in the pickup, but he is pretty sure there is no way he would ever understand what, and so he figures it's better if he doesn't think about it.

The next day Martha will call her closest friend, or perhaps two of them, and they will talk about this situation for six straight hours. In painstaking detail, they will analyze everything she said and everything he said, going over it time and time again, exploring every word, expression, and gesture for nuances of meaning, considering every possible ramification.

They will continue to discuss this subject, off and on, for weeks, maybe months, never reaching any definite conclusions, but never getting bored with it either.

Meanwhile, Fred, while fishing one day with a mutual friend of his and Martha's, will pause just before casting, frown, and say: "Norm, did Martha ever own a horse?"

And that's the difference between men and women.
 
I used Google maps once to find an address where there was to be an estate sale. It had the right street but the actual house was maybe 6 doors away. I could have walked into someone's house uninvited and maybe shot as an intruder. Good thing I looked around to see the activity down the street.
 
Jeni said:
Not sure if anyone else has had these things happen or if it is just me.

When looking for an address online..... i was looking at a map to orient myself .........a little pie shop was listed not far from place sounded like somewhere i would like to visit.
I told my spouse so we both looked it up and found a website/ and mentions/ reviews on Yelp etc....
But when in that area........ guess what it is NOT there ... not sure if closed or moved or what ........but when we asked Siri for directions she took us to an empty lot.

This is not the first time have looked up restaurants we like to try odd or new off the wall places..... the hours/ and such on websites often are wrong or have changed....... menus not accurate as they took things off ....... few places shut down on certain days due to short staff etc ..... but they only had paper sign on their door but did not bother to put on website......WHY?

Years ago ..My spouse once told me lets go to a place we had before i was almost certain it had been taken down he said nope website still says there ... it was a car lot lol .........i got dressed up for nothing........

Many people NOW (unlike at the beginning of internet ) have basic skills that can update a website.... but so MANY seem not to bother to do it.

i wanted to try a new restaurant by my home for some reason was closed one Sunday so i assumed not open on Sundays but the next one it was etc....
i no longer trust websites to update............... i think if i go and they are closed even when it said was open i am not keep coming back it is tough to get a restaurant off the ground ..... i would like to at least try a place and give a small business a boost ............................................but i think i would have better luck with a Magic8 ball to get hours and directions.
Click to expand...
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. At the end of the day, you've to decide if it's just clickbait or an actual factual story.

So far, in nearly 30 years, I've found very good resources and where I went: "hmm that seems strange..." and then did more digging to find the truth.

Therefore today, I came up with a video about upcoming "Aladdin 2 live action" We were wondering if Will Smith would be hired by Disney after Chris Rock made things worst by not apologising for what he did to Will's wife. Anyway, this sounds great news.

 
hollydolly said:
When you're lookigat Google Maps or Google street view...look at the bottom right of the page it will show you the date it was recorded.. sometimes the same street will have 2 different dates.

I've seen one end of a street be filmed in 2023, and the other end last time it was recorded was 2009, so if you're looking and seeing a business that was recorded in 2009, then there's every chance it will be gone. Better to check their website before making a trip
Click to expand...
And if they don't have a website, look up a phone number.

Visual maps on Google Earth are more reliable than plain ol' Google Maps. Google Earth visual maps are generated by a satellite that basically scans and updates on a regular basis.

Keep in mind too, over just the past few years, hundreds of thousand of businesses (in the US) had to close due to the covid pandemic, but Google maps will still show them.
 
Thank you all for the response
i do look at dates if they are there. on maps etc
this has been happening on and off for years ........just more prevalent lately ...... and do not know when this last place up and disappeared as they had fairly current reviews.
I also think avoid third party sites that have claim this business etc... for the reason they do not have up to date material .....

i was just wondering if others have experienced this ....
 
You got to love the click bait where something terrible has happened and 30 minutes later after having McAfee mess with you; you find out the story is a work of fiction for your own entertainment, while you thought the animal was going thru hell and you are thinking WTF! You're the one been put thru hell! Jailbait would be more fun.
 
What happens every second (one second) on the Internet ... as of May 2016 ... so I'm WAY behind D'OH
... and I would have thought Amazon shipped more than 35 items each second.
Sometimes I even find useless information on the Internet :ROFLMAO:

2e226da22a2221b250e3183555a5d35f.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top