Answer: Who Owns That Piece of Land? [Search Research]

Googler Daniel Russell knows how to find the answers to questions you can't get to with a simple Google query. In his weekly Search ReSearch column, Russell issues a search challenge, then follows up later in the week with his solution?using whatever search technology and methodology fits the bill. This week's challenge: How do you figure out who owns a specific piece of land?

Okay, I admit it. I kind of set you up for this one. But there's a reason... and that is that preconceptions of what you're searching for can ALSO damage your ability to search. Let me explain. We've actually discussed land ownership before. (See previous episode on determining how much acreage there is in a given land parcel.) Today we'll discuss a slightly different solution and I'll point out the setup.

Using Maps.Google.com you can right click at the given location on the map. That will popup a context menu with an option for "What's here?"

It will show up a link to the nearest address?in this case, 7380 Morton Ave. I should have been tipped off at this point that maybe it wasn't a Cargill-owned site. I recognized the name "Morton" as a big salt company. But I didn't really notice or pay attention. So I kept looking for the Cargill connection.

If you copy that address into regular Google, you'll see a Map result (which we already have) and a few links about "Morton Salt."

Huh. I thought I was looking for Cargill. All I ever read in the local press about the baylands has the word "Cargill" in it. Maybe Cargill bought Morton Salt?

This led to a flurry of clicks and tracking down information about Morton Salt. Does Cargill own it? Answer: No, it's actually owned by K+S Aktiengesellschaft, a German company that bought Morton in October of 2009 for $1.5B and in the process became the world's biggest producer of salt. Okay, who owns K+S? Answer: Nobody.

So.. who owns that parcel of land?

A quick check of the street location in Google Streetview shows an obvious first clue: Morton Salt!

The next link the SERP is to Wikimapia, a site that shows ownership. (It's a great resource for this kind of thing... highly recommended.)

To verify all this, I went to the real authority: the Alameda County Assessor's website and looked up information about the parcel (which is labeled: 537-751-6-4) As is usual, the government website is tough to use. (Do anything slightly wrong, and it gives you nothing.) But after a bit of trial and error, I found the parcel is in fact owned by Morton Salt, and is worth ~$20M.

Moral of the story: I went looking for Cargill and found Morton. This kind of thing happens fairly often?BEWARE of the made-up mind?it's often hard to let go of a preconception and see what you're actually looking for. While, as Pasteur said, chance favors the prepared mind, a correctly prepared mind is able to look around and also see alternatives. An effective searcher needs to be both prepared and willing to give up on preconceptions.

Search on!

Ed. note: If you don't think this week's challenge was hard enough, stay tuned! Dan's got plenty of stumpers that'll let you demonstrate your search prowess.

Answer: Who owns that piece of land? | SearchReSearch

---

Daniel M. Russell studies the way people search and research?an anthropologist of search, if you will. You can read more from Russell on his SearchReSearch blog, and stay tuned for his weekly challenges (and answers) here on Lifehacker.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/KkZnhi1VLRw/answer-who-owns-that-piece-of-land

bcs rankings chronicle the addams family badgers badgers the killing fields the killing fields