Google-fu
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Google + -fu (suffix indicating expertise or mastery)
Noun[edit]
- (informal) Skill in using search engines (especially Google) to quickly find useful information on the Internet.
- 2006, Johnny Long, Max Moser, Penetration Tester's Open Source Toolkit[1], Syngress, →ISBN, page 107:
- If you need to brush up on your Google-fu, check out Google Hacking for Penetration Testing from the talented and modest Johnny Long.
- 2007, Ben Grabow, "Big Brother Is Watching You Google", Scripps Howard News Service, May 9, E. W. Scripps:
- Coworkers seek out my Googling abilities. My Google-Fu is strong.
- 2008 May 5, Kevin Drum, “Political Animal: Corporate Welfare in the Oil Patch”, in Washington Monthly:
- ... one thing that I did notice when I was doing a little google-fu on the issue is that there appears to be approximately 20 to 50 billion dollars spent by the federal government ...
- 2008 August 6, Robin Abrahams, “Miss Conduct Chat”, in The Boston Globe:
- Oh, dang, I blogged about this once and can't find my blog post now (anyone with better Google-fu than I want to help?)
- 2008 October 16, Austin Modine, “Internet searches stimulate brain more than books: Assuming good Google-fu”, in The Register:
- [Gary] Small suggests the inexperienced may register less brain activity because they haven't yet figured out the right strategies required to perform a successful search. In other words, their Google-fu is weak.
- 2015, Gretchen McNeil, Get Dirty, HarperCollins, →ISBN:
- Kitty sighed. “It's worth looking into.” She pointed at the nearest computer. “Ed, I need your Googlefu.” Ed swung around and poised his fingers over the keyboard.
Usage notes[edit]
Google-fu is often used as a generic term applying to any search engine, and is frequently written in the lowercase form, google-fu. Reliably published usage suggests some ambivalence on whether to place a hyphen between Google and fu.