I think it all depends on the person, as to how it is used. If Google is your only source of information when programming, then yes it can make you lazy and in the long term possibly not a very good programmer. If I am looking at a new area of programming say wcf I will normally buy a few books, read these. Use the MSDN documentation for the nity- grity and to enforce my new knowledge use google for real world examples. I've found google to be a life saver many a time to give me that missing piece of the puzzle when learning something new. Google is just another tool, if used in the right context it's invaluable . Otherwise it can make you lazy.