Friday, October 8, 2010

Does Google Instant Know What You're Thinking?

Google, the most popular search engine on the internet, recently released Google Instant -- a speedier way to find what you may potentially be looking for. Type in a word or two in google.com's search box and suggestions will appear as you type. The suggestions are often hilarious and supposedly based on trends. Does Google know what you want? Here's a sampling:

Typing in "why" pulls up "why is the sky blue?" and "why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Typing in "who" results in "who won American Idol?"

"How come" nets "How come you don't call me?" (partial title of a Prince song) or "how come lyrics."

"Where can" brings up "where can I buy silly bandz" and "where can I watch free movies online."

"What if" once again goes the music route -- "What if" lyrics and "What if God was one of us."

"Why do" nets "why do cats purr?" and "Why do dogs eat grass?"

"How long" results in "how long does it take to boil corn?" and "how long does it take to get a passport?"

"What do I" turns into "What do I want to eat?"

Based on these results, it seems google users as a whole like music, free movies, silly bandz and for search engines to tell us what we want for dinner.

So does Google Instant know what its users are thinking? In this case, not at all.

No comments:

Post a Comment