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A Peek Into the Google

Posted by Hemos on from the going-under-the-hood dept.

A number of people sent in the most recent story from the NYTimes (reg yada yada) from a reporter who visited the Google-land. Interesting story, no real information though, but the ability to see what people are thinking about and interested in is pretty cool.

15 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. alike? by tanveer1979 · · Score: 5, Funny
    "Stare at Live Query long enough, and you feel that you are watching the collective consciousness of the world stream by. "

    Its amazing that most people of the world search for similar things, irrespective of language! Good they put filters.... otherwise a normal visitor would be shocked that most of the world wants naked ladies.

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  2. Privacy issues with google by kemikalzen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    On request whether Google gets subpoenas for giving out personal information:

    "Google does not comment on the details of legal matters involving Google," Mr. Brin responded.

    This is most interesting, and one can only assume that since they're US based, at some point they will/can be forced to give out data for crossreferencing Gov't databases. Imagine [insert gov't agency here] gets hold of the IP-address of [insert (suspected unamerican/criminal/terrorist) person here] they can easily extract profiling information on the individual.

    Scary

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    1. Re:Privacy issues with google by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Funny

      The first rule of Google is ... you don't talk about Google.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  3. Hey Taco by sql*kitten · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Its amazing that most people of the world search for similar things, irrespective of language! Good they put filters.... otherwise a normal visitor would be shocked that most of the world wants naked ladies.

    How about an E2 zeitgeist? Cream of the cool is close, but it would be interesting to see what people are searching for as well as what they are contributing. I sometimes even check E2 before Google, because at least there is some active quality control on E2 nodes, unlike the web at large.

  4. Read an interview from Google's... by craenor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Director of Operations. He said they use Linux because it's cheap and because they get better support.

    When asked how they can get better support for Linux, he answered, "We're Google, if we need to know something about the Linux we are running, we can usually find the guy who wrote the code and ask him."

    Must be nice...

  5. This reminds me of by Freston+Youseff · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Metacrawler's Metaspy. Check out what people are searching for on Metacrawler. Choosing the "Metaspy Exposed" option allows you to see unfiltered queries; a surprising number of them are quite shady. ;)

    --

  6. Women have no taste!!!!! by jonr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looking at the 2001 Zeitgeist I see disturbing trend:
    Top women searches:
    Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna & Aaliyah.
    And top men searches:
    Nostradamus, Bin Laden, Enimen, Michael Jackson & Howard Stern.
    Is beard in?

  7. Great Google Searches by Maddog+Batty · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google Searches #1

    OK so this is a bit off topic but I found the following searches on google rather interesting:

    gfasd: 36 matches
    fgasd: 24 matches
    adfsfds: 10 matches
    sdfassdf: 6 matches
    fsdaasdf: 4 matches

    So what are these searches? Well, just jam your fingers on the keyboard and do a search on that. Most people jam their fingers in the same place (left hand, middle row) and if enough people fill in web pages with garbage then matches are bound to be found. The surprise is the number of times this works.

    Google Searches #2

    Try using Google with the following links:
    Swedish Chef
    Elmer Fudd
    Pig Latin
    Klingon
    H4xor (the /. favourite)

    --
    wot no sig
    1. Re:Great Google Searches by Ripplet · · Score: 5, Funny

      Google even corrects your spelling!

      I tried

      "sdggfsdf"

      And got:

      Your original search: sdggfsdf returned zero results.
      The alternate spelling: sdfgsdf returned the results below.

      With 634 matches! Some of them in Russian!

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    2. Re:Great Google Searches by jonathanclark · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Another iteresting google search trick. Search for "http" and you will get a list of the top page-ranked sites on the internet.

      It's an interesting unbasied "who's who" list with a few surprises.

      --
      -- Virtual Windows Project
  8. I couldn't help myself.. by insac · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had to... My first Google query after having seen this article has been "mind your own business :-)"

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  9. New Poll: On NY Times Articles I by secs · · Score: 5, Funny

    - comply and register.

    - karma whore and post the article.

    - wait for the unregister link.

    - wait for the karma whore to post the article.

    - don't both to read and just post whats on my mind.

    - wait for cowboyneal to read it to me.

  10. No real information? by F452 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What, if a story isn't packed with a blow-by-blow technical orgy, it doesn't have any "real information?" This story has lots of good stuff. Thanks for the link.

  11. Philosophy and Technology by Cap'n+Q · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is a paradox of a Google log: it does not capture social phenomena per se, but merely the shadows they cast across the Internet.

    Wow. Google has implemented Plato's Cave.

    http://www.vrc.iastate.edu/why.html

  12. Japanese google zeitgeist by ZanshinWedge · · Score: 5, Informative

    In case people were wondering what the Japanese section of the google zeitgeist translated to:

    1. Ragnarok (e.g. Ragnarok Online, an MMORPG)
    2. Gundam
    3. ADSL
    4. Tanaka Kouichi (A pioneer in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy who recently won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry)
    5. Nobel Prize
    6. JA Net banking (online banking at JA bank)
    7. Harry Potter
    8. Shimadzu Factory (FYI, Tanaka Kouichi works at Shimadzu)
    9. Ring tones
    10. North Korea