Here’s another example of a journalist telling his readers to just head to Google rather than providing a direct link. It comes from this
What Should You Back Up? Q/A piece.

I have found an extremely good program made by Microsoft called “SyncToy.” It will walk you through the setup to back up exactly what files you need. It can be downloaded for free from the MS Web site. I started to type the URL here but it is more than 100 characters long so just Google for it using “Microsoft Synctoy” and it will be the first page that comes up.

Dead tree media (as they say) really needs to come up with a better way to list URLs in their print editions. Listing out 100-character URLs doesn’t make a lot of sense and either does telling someone to “just Google” it.

It would take some coordination between a tech person and folks in editorial, but it really wouldn’t be very hard for newspapers to set up redirects that could easily be listed in the print editions of the newspaper. “Go to nyt.com/link/ontheroad to see the covers” or “you can get the program at dnronline.com/link/synctoy.” Typing these links into a browser could go directly to the site or even to the newspaper site with a “you will be redirected momentarily” message. Hell, even put an ad on that page if you want.

And that’s my free idea of the day!