I don't want to start a flame war here but just felt to make a point here about googling as per my experience.
I have seen a lot of helpful and highly cooperative people on these forums who help no matter how stupid my query. And I get quick responses. Like today I have been online till now (1230 am) since 10 last night and have corresponded well with the members on the forum. But when the query is not urgent, I learn a lot when i do my own research.
Even though i might not get the result i want immediately, my knowledge pool is increased. We all like to call ourselves hackers. But could we please try to understand what it means. please refer to this link
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html .
I personally learnt a lot from it (though till today i am not fully able to follow the points mentioned in it).
Also the requester shows his respect for the time of the contributor if he does some research first.
Whew, that was a long post. Hope I didn't step on someone's toes, but this topic is one thing i strongly believe in
Anyway this is an interesting topic. If any members feels willing to share his views, please.