Google Suggest

Cristiano writes "As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time. This is similar to Google's 'Did you mean?' feature that offers alternative spellings for your query after you search, except that it works in real time." It crashes Konqueror, but works nicely on Mozilla. Update: 12/11 by J : The engineer who thought of it, then built it in his "20% time," blogs about the process.

Comments

/. Spelling

[Zorilla]

> loose

Google
------
Did you mean: lose?

Yeah, Slashdot needs this badly.

Re:/. Spelling

[MillionthMonkey]

When I type "loose" it doesn't suggest "lose".

It does suggest "loose women".

Re:/. Spelling

[Zorilla]

Yeah, I didn't do any checking on that, but I do think it would be a good idea for something like this to be integrated into the post filtering. If it detects the word, "loose," used as a verb, it stops you so you can verify.

Re:/. Spelling

[sisukapalli1]

Going by stereotypes... I suspect some people may be searching for other people with "loose morals" :). I am sure, many would be on "lose weight" stuff too. What would Google suggest?

S

Re:/. Spelling

[RobertB-DC]

When I type "loose" it doesn't suggest "lose".

It does suggest "loose women".

It also suggests "loose weight". I can't believe how many web sites there are devoted to loosing weight. I guess that's the origin of the term, "to throw your weight around" -- so many people loosing it, and throwing weight will certainly loose it. What a bunch of loosers.

(and looking at that paragraph long enough makes me wonder if I've loosed it, myself)

Re:/. Spelling

[Tatarize]

I was going for "Pretty" but after I got "pret" in there it started suggesting preteen girls and such.

I'd hate to see it if it wasn't striking down entries. For example "sex" comes up with total blanks. No "sex addition" or anything, so its obviously removing stuff but apparently not flawlessly.

Reminds me a great google game. Turn strict search filtering on on google images and try and find porn using single word. My record is 2nd image with "cameltoe".

Re:/. Spelling

[Thing 1]

Reminds me a great google game. Turn strict search filtering on on google images and try and find porn using single word. My record is 2nd image with "cameltoe".

Under either Moderate or No filtering, "brick" has breasts on the second (and third) images. "Cameltoe"'s results I wouldn't really call porn; the shape is suggested but there are clothes in the way.

Re:/. Spelling

[Anonymous Coward]

You were searching for "preteen" and Google's just that smart. Admit it.

Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[GillBates0]

but with a HUGE database/archive of possible candidates at it's disposal.

Wonder how it'll hold up when it gets out Beta though...it's bound to be pretty computationally intensive.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how long before spammers use this maliciously to create word lists to direct traffic.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[mdf356]

It's surviving a slashdotting. What more do you want?

Cheers,
Matt

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[dustinbarbour]

Yes, it would be intensive for their server should everyone decide to use it in place of standrd Google search. However, the algorithm behind their "Did you mean" runs in O(n^2) worst case and O(n) best case. Not too shabby.. The algorithm is what makes it possible.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[ciroknight]

This is why Google is such an awesome concept.

Instant access to any piece of human knowledge, and it now can guess what you are looking for right as you can type. The only next improvement I can think of is if it did related searches to the term you searched for, but I'm not sure how you would represent all of that data at once. Leave it to the Google geniuses ;)

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Alomex]

Where n is???

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[nacturation]

Where n is??? ... the notation you should have learned in Computer Science 101? :)

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[eln]

big-O notation

(definition)

Definition: A theoretical measure of the execution of an algorithm, usually the time or memory needed, given the problem size n, which is usually the number of items. Informally, saying some equation f(n) = O(g(n)) means it is less than some constant multiple of g(n). The notation is read, "f of n is big oh of g of n".

Strangely enough, I got this definition from a Google search.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[sketerpot]

Small enough that Google's servers can hold up under a slashdotting.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

Where n is??? ...part of a clever looking bit in a book/article/blogpost you never understood but paste into Slashdot to make you look smart.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Alomex]

You missed the point. Is n the size of the word typed so far? the total dictionary size? the number of completions in your answer set?

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Chris Mattern]

Nice, but not answering his question. He didn't ask what O(n) was, he asked what n is, and that's a legitimate question. What *is* n? What is the determining factor of problem size for this algorithm? The number of characters the user has typed? The size of the database of terms Google will search? What?

Chris Mattern

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Alomex]

I know what the O is, I'm asking what the n is.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[adeydas]

personally i believe its a pretty useless service unless somebody dosen't know his spellings. i mean a person searching would know what to type in, so why the suggestions part. and there is no guarantee that the suggestion would be any help to the user...

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[bill_kress]

And it's still responding instantly! Google is pretty amazing.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

n is the number of entries in the search database. In a search, n mostly refers to the sample space of the objects to search.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Hulfs]

I'd mod the parent insightful because, even if he/she doesn't know what Big-Oh notation is, the question is still relevant. With a dataset the size of google, even running a constant time, O(1), algorithm could possibly bring servers to their knees especially having to search per keystroke. Merely stating that Google's 'Did You Mean' search algorithm is linear, O(n), best case doesn't really mean much in terms of measured performance. Of course, if you're trying to decide between two search algorithms using the same dataset and one algorithm is O(n log n) and the other is O(n^2) then the Big-Oh comparison actually means something.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[rlorenzo]

it is not just mispellings that this is helpful, it is also finding out all the possiblities that a word can invoke that you haven't thought about.

It is a sort of thesaurus of ideas.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[TheRaven64]

Of course, if you're trying to decide between two search algorithms using the same dataset and one algorithm is O(n log n) and the other is O(n^2) then the Big-Oh comparison actually means something.

Not always. Big-Oh only means the worst case. Quicksort is O(n^2), but the worst case is so rare that it usually performs better than many O(n log n) algorithms.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[ad0gg]

Umm, overture, wordtracker and other services already tell you the most searched terms which SEO spammers use to tailer doorway pages(spam pages).

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[matrix0f8h]

With such a large list of suggestions available, this seems like it would be great for other applications. Think of typing into any textbox and having popular suggestions pop-up. I can see this being useful for many web forms.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[s88]

Man... read the question everyone before you jump all over him.

He is asking for what aspect of google "n" is bound to! Does "n" mean the number of total "topics", webpages, or something else.

Saying O(n) is useless unless you define n.
Let n=number of servers. Hmm..thats good performance.
Let n=number of words in the googld dictionary, also maybe good.
Let n=number of words on all web pages that are indexed... thats not so good.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

No, YOU missed the point. If you had understood one word of your CS classes you'd know that how big n is only barely matters. Idoit.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[sprins]

> it's bound to be pretty computationally intensive. Only searching previously entered search strings might not be that bad. 80-20 rule probably applies here too.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[JabberWokky]

If it makes you feel any better about Slashdot, there are plenty of people who knew exactly what you're asking and haven't responded because they know enough to know that they don't know the answer. Thus you're only getting responses from people who didn't understand the question.

I'd guess that n will vary between now and when they release as they grow their database.

Interestingly, they seem to clamp down on search phrases that are synonyms and start with the same beginning. For instance, the search for "Rocky Horror" is more common than "Rocky Horror Picture Show", but only the latter is listed. In this case, for reasons that are specific to the search, using RHPS over Rocky Horror can cause problems as it eliminates "Rocky Horror Show", which is the stage production, and often swapped by the public for RHPS.

--
Evan

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[vettemph]

The only next improvement I can think of is if it did related searches to the term you searched for, but I'm not sure how you would represent all of that data at once. Leave it to the Google geniuses ;)

No. I want it to show the results of my search term just as I turn to look at my PC. It's simple, Your USB powrered "thinking cap"(1) detects your uncertainty about a given topic and does the search as your walking over to your PC. I'm sure someone will get a patent for an obvious bullshit idea like this one.

(1)search "thinking cap", It sort of exists.

Hey, here is another idea: Tie google to the voice command "What the fuck *". Any time you say "What the Fuck is that?!?!", Google will pop up and respond "What the fuck is what?". It's kinda like Ask Jeeves. :)

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[recursiv]

In your rush to point out you know more than the above poster, did you stop to consider that he might not be asking about the notation? I don't understand what n is supposed to be either. Do you? If you do, why don't you clue us in, instead of your smug arrogance. In case you are still missing it, I do know how O(n) notation works. So does the poster above.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Straif]

It's good for a lot more than just typos.

For example, I'm looking for a printer for my parents for Christmas and when entering in the HP printer prefix "psc " I get a listing of all the different models and the number of hits for each.

Makes looking for good reviews a little easier.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[recursiv]

Well, i think it matters enough to make a difference between n=5 (n is word length) and n=10000000000 (n is the number of pages in google's db)

I admit that the latter case is highly unlikely to be what the poster referring to, but it's not inconceivable. (you might have to squint)

In the real world, the size of n does matter. A factor of 2 difference in n affects the speed of an O(n^2) algorithm by a factor of 4. Of course, theoretical CS isn't concerned with small factors like 4, but someone back in the real world waiting for their search results cares about a ratio of 1.5

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[generic-man]

Makes looking for good reviews a little easier.

From my experience doing product research on Google, replace "good reviews" with "Amazon.com clones."

Try searching for any item and the keyword "reviews." It's sickening how little useful information you can find.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[nacturation]

You missed the point. Is n the size of the word typed so far? the total dictionary size? the number of completions in your answer set?

Actually, you missed it I'm afraid. The "Big O" notation describes how efficient a function is. The thing you're searching might be a billion records or it might be 10 records. What matters here is the search algorithm's efficiency, not what is being searched.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, that is, as they say, trivially obvious.

However, it is not trivially obvious what "n" is counting is this case. For instance, I can give you an O(1) algorithm for a search of an arbitrarily large database, as long as I'm measuring complexity by w.r.t. "the number of servers used in processing the query." Adding servers will not increase the processing time, therefore there is a constant upper bound (with respect to the number of servers being used), therefore it is a constant time (or less) algorithm.

This is a stupid and intentionally misleading example, but it should show that O(f(n)) can be an utter lie if you don't know what n is. Oranges? Turtles? Pigeons? WTF?

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[nacturation]

In your rush to point out you know more than the above poster, did you stop to consider that he might not be asking about the notation? I don't understand what n is supposed to be either. Do you? If you do, why don't you clue us in, instead of your smug arrogance. In case you are still missing it, I do know how O(n) notation works. So does the poster above.

Big O notation refers to the efficiency of the algorithm. If you really understand the notation, you wouldn't be asking what 'n' means. The original post stated that the "Did you mean..." algorithm is O(n) efficient. If it stated that the algorithm is O(1) efficient, would you ask what the 1 represents?

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Elminst]

In the real world, the size of n does matter

Yeah.. like my ex-gf used to tell me;

it's not the size of the n, it's the efficiency of the algorithm...

badum-ching.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[prell]

When it gets out of beta? I think you're giving Google a lot of credit.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Nitish]

No, you still don't get what he meant. He understands that the algorithm has a quadratic running time; he wants to know what the measure of input size is. Is it quadratic in the dictionary size or quadratic in the size of the typed input?

If I told you a new graph algorithm I developed had a linear running time, it's entirely reasonable to ask if I meant linear in the number of vertices V, the number of edges E, or the V + E which is usually meant. These are three entirely different running times!

(For the record, I'm a Ph.D. student at UIUC studying algorithms.)

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[leonmergen]

Sheesh, the amount of servers at slashdot is like at least one thousand times less than the amount of servers at google... what do you expect ?

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[pigscanfly.ca]

You seem to be abusing big O notation a bit my friend.
You cant say O(n) best case , since it O(n) is a bounding above by a function. What your looking to say is that the algorithm is O(n^2) and Omega(n)

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[BorgCopyeditor]

Instant access to any piece of human knowledge

I'm no Luddite, but might it not be significantly more exact to add the qualification "that can be found on the Internet"?

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[LSU_ADT_Geek]

What is interesting about the implementation is that it seems that Google is generating some sort of XML file which contains the computed information necessary for the Suggest service. Through this is only my premature evaluation of the code (http://www.google.com/ac.js), if it is true that it is ran off of a XML list, then the computation is not necessarily a problem and can even be extensible to other websites to incorporate the feature into their existing google search inserts.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[ViolentGreen]

You are still missing the point. The question is not what value n is, but what n is a measure of. For example, IIRC, Quick Sort is O(log n) where n is the number of values to sort. Binay search is O(log n) where n is the depth of the tree.

n has to represent something or the notation is useless.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[nacturation]

Thanks, that's a much better way of asking the question. I guess I got caught up in the whole "what is n" aspect rather than reading between the lines. In my defence, I've yet to have any coffee today. ;-)

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

It's about the same as the number of options arising in my head from your asking about n's identity with no further qualification in response to a statement regarding an algorithm whose seemingly obvious context makes me implicitly assume the problem size and thus n must be a product of the number of characters the user entered.

Of course, we should all assume it's crystal clear what you're asking, because it is to you (not meant as sarcasm) since this is a somewhat technical forum at times.

Yet I do believe that those less rigorously trained and richly experienced than yourself cannot be quite to blame for misunderstanding the original thing.

And yes, I'm writing this for no one's benefit but my own. This dialogue gave me a perfect example w.r.t. a socio-philosophical question I've been sort of toying around with ever since some communications text book back in college: Is the responsibility for the success of the transmission of a message always on the sender?

The answer must be: Within reason.

Hmmm...something tells me this was somewhat over the top.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[nacturation]

Right, I missed that the first time around but caught it on the return trip. Mea culpa.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[downbad]

i find it amusing that this is faster than Mozilla's autocomplete on my system.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[mpupu]

Quicksort is (generally) O(n*log n), where n is the number of items to sort.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Have Blue]

Or better, "can be found on the Internet in text form". The image search is nowhere near as comprehensive or accurate, and not even Google is attempting sound or video search yet.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Nitish]

In that case, it's completely understandable! :-)
Right after I hit the submit button and went back to the thread, I saw the clarifications and realised that you knew what he meant. I guess I deserve a (-1, Redundant). Oh, well... :-)

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[loginx]

While designing an algorithm, the size of n doesn't matter, only the complexity of your relationship which allows you to understand the relationship between the system performance and the evolution of n. e.g: O(n) is linear. Your algorithm will perform in a way that is directly proportional to your input. O(n^n) is exponential, which means you need to try to find a more efficient algorithm to do the job.

To really understand what the other people in this thread are talking about, I recommend you get yourself a copy of the book "Mastering Algorithms with C" and take a university CS 101 class. Usually these classes cover the topic of algorithm complexity and evolution quite well.

Although I'm sure you can also find some decent tutorials online.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[bob65]

Binay search is O(log n) where n is the depth of the tree.

??? Isn't logn the height of the tree? Therefore n being the number of elements to search?

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[recursiv]

Although I doubt you'll believe me, I already understand this. I can't even remember how many university CS classes I've taken, most relevantly including theoretical CS and algorithms courses.

My point is that O(n) notation is not always a satisfactory measure of real world performance. The thing that matters to a person using an application is the number of milliseconds that they have to wait for a computation to finish. Iterating over a list of n elements is O(n). Doing it 10 times is also O(n). Despite this, in real life, a user will much prefer an algorithm that uses the first approach to the second.

My point was that you have to specify what n represents. An algorithm that was O(n^2) where n is the length of the user input would probably beat an algorithm that was O(n) where n is the size of the google database.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[recursiv]

You are correct.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[northcat]

The only next improvement I can think of is if it did related searches to the term you searched for

It already does that: Google Sets. More or less.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Herbmaster]

Not always. Big-Oh only means the worst case. Quicksort is O(n^2), but the worst case is so rare that it usually performs better than many O(n log n) algorithms.

Furthermore, Big-Oh only means an upper limit on the worst case. Quicksort is O(n^4), and O(n^5), and O(n^6). It also happens to be O(n^2), which is a much more useful statement. For some reason people like to talk about Big-Oh even if they really mean Big-Theta.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[slamb]

If it makes you feel any better about Slashdot, there are plenty of people who knew exactly what you're asking and haven't responded because they know enough to know that they don't know the answer. Thus you're only getting responses from people who didn't understand the question.

A little. But my God, there are so many of these people, and they are so arrogant in their ignorance. They think the variable doesn't matter, and that anyone who believes otherwise doesn't understand asymptotic notation. They're completely backwards: the variable matters, and anyone who believes otherwise doesn't understand asymptotic notation.

Really, they seem to be missing the distinction between the meaning of n and its numeric value. Saying "it's O(n) with n = 50,000" is indeed the same as saying "it's O(1)". But saying "O(n) with n being the number of indexed pages" is necessary for the O(n) to have meaning.

(I don't actually know that it is with the number of indexed pages, by the way. I'm interested in the answer to this question also.)

By the way, saying "O(n) in the best case" isn't strictly correct, either. Big-Oh, by definition, measures the worst case. It's more correct to say "Omega(n) (best case) and O(n^2) (worst case)". (And more correct still to actually use the Greek letter capital-omega, but slashdot doesn't seem to like that.)

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[cakoose]

The only next improvement I can think of is if it did related searches to the term you searched for, but I'm not sure how you would represent all of that data at once.

Gigablast does something like that. I think I've seen it in other places as well.

BTW, anybody else tired of the Google fanboys?

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[K-Man]

It looks like a simple prefix match on a trie, with some pruning to get the top 10 results. There's no approximate matching or spelling correction which would make it harder.

So for a string of length k, we have:

1. walk down k nodes from the root to a node S -- (O(k)).

2. Explore leaf-node descendants of S, retrieving those with the top 10 counts. Each leaf represents a complete string in the trie, and I'll assume no strings are prefixes of others.

Step 2 could be done in a number of ways. I suppose each node could be labelled with the maximum count of any leaf node below it, to allow easy navigation to the highest-count descendant in O(1) (or O(alphabetsize) ) per level. Finding the second-ranked, third, etc. would then be a matter of deleting the first-ranked leaf (temporarily) and finding the top-ranked descendant again in the resulting trie, deleting it, and so on, iterating until 10 have been found.

Overall step 2 would be about 10 * (the average depth of a leaf, minus k) * O(1), or O( avg string length - k ).

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

[quote]Instant access to any piece of human knowledge, and it now can guess what you are looking for right as you can type. [/quote]

e.g.,
Q: "now, upon who's nose did i leave my spectacles?"
A: (as i stare at a google page, i see the reflection of my nose)

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

Sweet... a refresher to my first year CS course.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it should be obvious what n is bound to. N = number of words to search through. How else would you describe a search algorithm?

It should also be obvious what the following have in common:
n=number of servers
n=number of letters in the input string
n=number of for loops in the algorithm
n=number of hamburgers sold by mac donalds this year.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: your sig. I guarantee you'd drop that glib attitude and shit your pants if the FBI ever knocked on your door.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Straif]

It's a good way to kill off 20+ minutes, filtering though the clone results to try and find one legitimate one.
Of course then I always want to find at least one more to corroborate the first.

I wonder if a voluntary moderation system, similar to here, might work. Something that requires human interaction not just algoritms and not just by the person doing the initial search.
A registered user performs a search, enters a quick reason for the search "all-in-one printer reviews and comparisons" and then other users rate the results.

Or something to eliminate repetative text strings automatically, not just by re-searching with a -"review and compare prices".
My guess is if the same 10 word string shows up in 20,000 of the 50,000 results, they're probably clones and 1 is enough.

Well time to head home and do some real work.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[sabNetwork]

Check it out:

Mac OS X 10.4's new Spotlight search feature will contain "as-yet unannounced internet searching features which are said to be dramatic".

This could be a coincidence. However, it's unlikely.

I'm not sure I'd call this dramatic, but it would be nice to have this integrated with my OS.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[ciroknight]

ah, shafted again for karma whoring.. ;)

but seriously, I see the internet at a compedium of human knowledge, even if that knowledge is 60% porn. I wrote that earlier while reading through Wikipedia, which, to me, seems to have just about every piece of knowledge I'd ever imagine wanting to know about humanity.. Sure there's a lot more that can go into it, but it's already very impressive, and if a tool like Google lets me search through Wikipedia, then it's definitely giving me access to a boatload of knowledge. Forgive my attempts at dressing up my language ;).

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[dustinbarbour]

I'm a computer scientist! I don't concern myself with the real world!

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

So your girl was telling you not to worry about your short n, to worry about the "algorithm" and you couldn't even do that? Boy, if we had a short n like yours, we'd worry about the "algorithm". No wonder she dumped you! There's more to it than spitting out your stuff...

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[ramzak2k]

I dont know how the parent came up with Big O nsquare and Big O n.

This is how i see it:
If n represents the total number of records they have in the database of all possible combinations in searches.

Assuming that the database records are pre-sorted alphabetically. Assuming that they have a binary tree which is no-linear.

I would estimate the big theta to be (log n.
Big O says - how bad an algorithm can be
Big Omega says - how good an algorithm can be
Big theta gives the picture of how many operation an algorithm would take.

You can check this link
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~rmuhamma/Algor ithms/ MyAlgorithms/binarySearchTree.htm

This from a graduate level data structures class i have been to. I bet google has a kick ass algorithm that does much better. Thats what a search company i assume specializes in - optimizing algorithms.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[shird]

Well try typing in just "Britn"... use the down keys to select "Britney Spears Greatest hits" or whatever. See the amonut of typing youve saved? See the number of hits each query does without having to do the query? See the other common queries? See one there you didnt think of using? etc. Thats auto-complete for you... its mostly for saving typing, but in this case can do a lot more.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[soliptic]

Better still....

"and has been crawled by Google".

There's still a lot of stuff Google simply hasn't indexed.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you retarded or something? Do you really think slashdotting means from Slashdot's servers to the target?

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[MynockGuano]

I think he means that if Slashdot servers can handle normal Slashdot traffic without being "Slashdotted", then Google, with its much greater number of servers, should have no problem handling the swarm.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

Most likely n in this case refers to the number of possible searches in the Google database. But the exact value of n isn't really important. The relationship between n and O is; it represents how well a particular algorithm scales with data size.

For example, the best performing algorithm you will get is O(1). That is, no matter how much data you have, the algorithm will take a constant amount of time/memory to execute.

O(log(n)) is a good performer as well because even if you double your data size, your execution time will still remain (relatively) low. Binary trees are a good example of this.

O(n) scales linearly; if you add 10 times more data, it takes 10 times longer to finish.

With O(n^2) you want to keep the data low, or else you're going to be waiting a while for it to finish, and if you're using O(n^3) or higher, your algorithm probably needs to be rethought.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Alomex]

Actually the best search algorithms are described in terms of the length of the keyword, not the dictionary.

Read up on suffix trees and their modern derivatives.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[shadowbearer]

Isn't it not really the number of servers so much as it is their distribution and having different backbone routes?

(That's the way I understand it anyway)

SB

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Alomex]

Actually not always in the case of text searches, where it often refers to the size of the pattern (keyword) searched for.

Furthermore, even if it is the length of the database (which I seriously doubt) is that a database of all keywords in Google's? or a smaller set of selected topics?

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[shadowbearer]

I'm glad you asked it - reading the thread reminded me of being a teenager reading about quicksorts and why they were better than bubble etc. A friend introduced the quicksort to me when I was in the middle of writing a game in pascal, and it improved the game immensely. This was in ~'84. In college a couple years later I finally understood why they were better, and it was an epiphany I've allowed myself to forget.

I'd forgotten not just the what, but how exciting it was to learn at the time, and how good a friend I had then. Thanks for the memories :)

SB

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[blackcoil]

Heh. My server doesn't have knees.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[nacturation]

I'd forgotten not just the what, but how exciting it was to learn at the time...

I guess the old saying is true: nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[shadowbearer]

Always. :) No memory is ever as good as being there.

SB

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[srcosmo]

Hah! This is great! I'm supposed to be studying for a CS final, but I can learn it all on Slashdot instead!!

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[Anonymous Coward]

The O(n) in best case...:

This is marketing speak. The alg. possibly is O(n) on some well-defined (hopefully) subset which (hopefully) represents in some way the typical inputs in practical use.

Amen to your criticism by the way. For a forum which complains about the shallow technical knowledge of the PHB, there certainly is a lot of mindless jargon-flinging.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[slamb]

The O(n) in best case...: This is marketing speak. The alg. possibly is O(n) on some well-defined (hopefully) subset which (hopefully) represents in some way the typical inputs in practical use.

Ahh, that makes sense. Now that I think about it, this isn't even that uncommon. In a class, we determined that quicksort is "O(n log n) in the common case" or some such. In fact, I might even have seen something similar (but more rigorous) in the Knuth books.

Re:Cool! Just like form AutoComplete

[donutz]

There's the stuff Google hasn't crawled (yet), and the stuff it's not allowed to. Don't forget that a robots.txt file can prevent Google from crawling/indexing a lot. I mean, take a look at this one: www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt.

Try this:

[elid]

Type in g. Then type o. Then type o again. And again. Keep typing o's... Look what happens :-)

Re:Try this:

[darth_MALL]

Try typing "mi". (saw this in an article)
Top 4 results:
Microsoft
miniclip
Michael Moore
miserable failure

Re:Try this:

[mdf356]

OMFG, that's hilarious.

"goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle" is too long a word.

Cheers,
Matt

Re:Try this:

[Espectr0]

Try "liti"

litigious bastards

Re:Try this:

[kzinti]

So why is it that goooooooooooooooogle, with 16 o's, has over 23000 hits, while strings with one more or one fewer o have only hundreds of hits?

gooooooooooooooogle 618
goooooooooooooooogle 23,300
gooooooooooooooooogle 198

I thought maybe it was a power-of-two thing, but other such disparities happen at non 2^n transitions. Interesting.

Re:Try this:

[smackjer]

And "miserable failure" returns the biography of George W. Bush.

Re:Try this:

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you, Mr. Obvious.

Re:Try this:

[Reverend528]

"I Hate" also produces some pretty funny results.

Re:Try this:

[mottie]

odd.. goooooooooooooooogle (16 zeros) has 27,000+ more hits than any other multi-zero search.. weird

Re:Try this:

[Sinus0idal]

Own up. Were you trying to buffer overflow google when you found this out? :D

Re:Try this:

[ValiantSoul]

Or try "google is" I get gay, shit, evil, crap, god, stupid, your friend, the best, bad, cool

Re:Try this:

[damgx]

Hum, the scary part is a search like this: goooooogle

Gives:
Did you mean: goooooooogle

Yes, that is it. Google is spelled with 8 O's silly me.

Re:Try this:

[Anonymous Coward]

FROM : http://labs.google.com/suggest/faq.html

10. Can Google Suggest see what I'm typing?

Just as E.T.(TM) needs to phone home in order to get a spaceship to pick him up, Google Suggest needs to talk to Google while you type in order to offer suggestions to you. Everything you type, though, is protected by Google's privacy policy.

Re:Try this:

[Anonymous Coward]

I've found similar results with just "o."

Although try typing "f" then "uuuuu...." to see how good Google's language filters are. Brits can also try "cor" then "coor," "cooooooooooooor," etc.

The possibilities are endless!

Re:Try this:

[Anonymous Coward]

If Bush is a "miserable failure", what does that make Kerry?

Hmmmm...

Re:Try this:

[Anonymous Coward]

accomplice to a miserable failure - he was there to throw the election

Re:Try this:

[Anonymous Coward]

"A better Choice"?

Re:Try this:

[Underholdning]

Three words: Ads by goooooooooooooooogle

Re:Try this:

[Ramses0]

"goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo o"... is too long a word. Try using a shorter word.

your point? :^)

--Robert
(slow down there cowboy!)

Re:Try this:

[Derling Whirvish]

The same thing happens with Yahoooooooo....

Re:Try this:

[talmagwa]

consonant followed by a series of o's and get the same result.

Re:Try this:

[kz45]

And "miserable failure" returns the biography of George W. Bush

or the website of the democratic national convention

Re:Try this:

[smackjer]

It actually does result in W's bio.

Re:Try this:

[smackjer]

He's not an AC!

Re:Try this:

[JeremyALogan]

read this somewhere last night... type "george bush is a" and look at the results. quite amusing

Re:Try this:

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why

Re:Try this:

[Ian Peon]

It looooooks like it's just peoooooople playing with goooooooogle.

Re:Try this:

[shadowbearer]

What's even funnier is that if you follow the suggestion, the top hit there gives:

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.

Hmm. What does this mean? ;-)

SB

Re:Try this:

[fbform]

Type in g. Then type o. Then type o again. And again. Keep typing o's... Look what happens :-)

Found something similar with "lololol" (my pet peeve in IM communication). :-)

Re:Try this:

[Anonymous Coward]

Try "hahahah...".

Re:Try this:

[SoulSkorpion]

"goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo o"... is too long a word. Try using a shorter word.

But... but... autocomplete said it was ok!

Great..

[BossMC]

[ Niagra Falls ]
[Google Search] [I'm Feeling Lucky]

Did you mean viagra?

Re:Great..

[APDent]

Except, if you actually watch the drop-down list as you're typing, once you've typed "nia", it's already suggesting "niagara falls" with the correct spelling and 3,090,000 results. True, "niagra falls" (incorrectly spelled) is also in the list, but since it only has 129,000 results, it's probably clear which one you're actually looking for if you're not trying to make a joke about Viagra.

This is pretty amazing, really.

Re:Great..

[BossMC]

Jesus, I've been spelling it wrong since I've been able to write! Why didn't anybody say anything?

Re:Great..

[caino59]

you always reminded the teacher when homework was due, didn't you?

Re:Great..

[APDent]

Nah. I usually turned it in early.

Not useful

[danuary]

It excludes any even vaguely dirty words. What fun is that?

I mean, that's all I use google for anyway...

re: not useful

[ed.han]

you know, as funny as that is, my first thought also was "what about 'dirty' words" and the possible problems they'd hear about from parents, etc. my suspicion is that they'll be able to relax the filters that prevent those words from cropping up in search results.

ed

Re:Not useful

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you care, you can still look for pr0n and with only one-hand typing !

Thanks again, Mr. Google !

Re:Not useful

[RealityMogul]

Type "shi" into it? Look at the second result you get. Type in the full word and you get some really strange results that I don't want to click on for fear of seeing tubgirl again.

Re:Not useful

[NardofDoom]

Try 'cunnil'.

Re:Not useful

[moonbender]

Expand your vocabulary - it doesn't seem to mind "fornicate". ;)

Re:Not useful

[Attaturk]

This just goes to show that even Google can be stoopid every once in a while - and they're usually such an insightful bunch too.

Actually their naughty word filter betrays a more significant problem. It would have to be a much more aggressive (and therefore probably much less useful) list for it to be safe.

I don't like the idea of my kid doing his homework research, trying to look up information about the assyrian empire, mistyping the first four letters and then coming to me asking what assrape is. I'm sure you people with more time on your hands can come up with better examples and I'm absolutely certain that the spammers, promoters and other SEO queens are already working on it.

Leave autocomplete alone please, Google - or at least leave it to the client until you're finished building your own OS. ;-)

Re:Not useful

[danimrich]

It doesn't seem as if they censor these words in languages other than English (try German words).

Already tried it before

[Anonymous Coward]

and I can't see that it's hugely useful. Just like I'm Feeling Lucky, it's not terribly helpful except on a rare occasion. However, I would prefer to have it than not, so I guess that's about as good an endorsement as you can get with something as good as Google.

Crashes Konqeuror?

[Shaman]

Not mine. Worked like a charm. Version 3.3.2 on Gentoo Linux 64bit

Re:Crashes Konqeuror?

[Espectr0]

Also, safari works fine

Re:Crashes Konqeuror?

[JabberWokky]

Works here for 3.3.2 on SUSE (standard YaST auto-update packages).

I'm guessing that whoever had crashes was running an old version.

--
Evan

Re:Crashes Konqeuror?

[Excelsior]

Maybe the author was just using bait to see how many people are still using Konquerer. Based on current responses, it appears the answer is five. /ducks and runs for cover

Is it any coincidence

[Moth7]

That when you enter "P", the first suggestion is "Paris Hilton"? I guess this just proves that porn really does drive every new technology ;-)

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of the results are comical. Try typing "Britney Spears", "Lindsay Lohan" or "Tara Reid".

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Anonymous Coward]

did it ever occure to you that it is possible that she has so many results there because she is a beautiful, clever, smart, and funny girl?
i wish paris was my best friend, my best friend ever.

(ps: you think you are so cute with your little wink at the end - fuck)

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet type "porn" and it has nothing to suggest, not even "pornography". However, type "pr0" and it suggest a whole bunch of "pr0n..." stuff. Odd.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[dustinbarbour]

What's sad is that Google is probably basing the temporary results off of rank or the number of times that string has been queried. So is it possible that "Paris Hilton" is the most often searched term that starts with a 'P'? I think so. It's a rather sad commentary on the state of human affairs, if yuo ask me.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[kkovach]

If it were any good it would recognize any link from slashdot and take you directly to porn, without having to type even a 'p'.

- Kevin

Re:Is it any coincidence

[DeckardJK]

So... "porn" was the first thing you tried to type too, huh?

Re:Is it any coincidence

[IdleTime]

No, it just means that you are a porn freak!

Their suggestions is ofcourse based on earlier interests shown from your ip. So when you type capital P, google knows that you are not intereste in Paris, France but Paris Hilton and no, it's not a hotel!

Re:Is it any coincidence

[mahdi13]

she is a beautiful, clever, smart, and funny girl?

I sure hope that was sarcasm...
Someone mod him "Funny" so people know that it is a joke!

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed, same with "pussy", "penis", "tit", though not "cunninglingus" or "autoerotism".

A search engine that censors itself without user input, beginning of the end for Google?

Re:Is it any coincidence

[SlayerofGods]

did it ever occure to you that it is possible that she has so many results there because she is a beautiful, clever, smart, and funny girl?

Nope

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. Anyone else expect to see parent in a stalker trial someday? Clever? Smart? Funny? Have you lost your mind?

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Haydn Fenton]

Haha. What's also cool is 'f' gives 'Firefox' as the first suggestion, it must be making a big impact.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[oiarbovnb]

amazon best buy cnn dictionary ebay firefox games hotmail ikea jokes kazaa lyrics mapquest news online dictionary paris hilton quotes recipes spybot tara reid (who is that?) ups verizon weather xbox yahoo zipcodes

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Methuseus]

Is your sister really *that* bad?

Re:Is it any coincidence

[kzinti]

There are some other interesting first-suggestions in the alphabet: h suggests "hotmail", and x suggests "x-box" (not, as I was expecting, a porn term). d suggests "dictionary", and o suggests "online dictionary". Most surprising: f suggests "firefox", where the top hit is mozilla.org.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[combcox]

how about 'f' for firefox

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a rather sad commentary on the state of human affairs, if yuo ask me.

... says the guy with the "penile percentile" signature ...

Re:Is it any coincidence

[IdleTime]

I have no sister, you insensitive clod! :-)

Re:Is it any coincidence

[VanillaCoke420]

This isn't Flamebait, it's Funny if anything.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[brauwerman]

But "Paypal", the second suggestion, has more hits.

How are they choosing which results to return?

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're testing out a search engine, you could always search the web for her, although that's not a very good idea at work...

Re:Is it any coincidence

[totallygeek]

...you are not intereste in Paris, France but Paris Hilton and no, it's not a hotel!

I think it is the same price to stay the night in either one.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Vicsun]

And when you search for T the first suggestion is Tara Reid. You might be onto something. ;)

Re:Is it any coincidence

[vginders]

Paris Hilton and no, it's not a hotel!

But you can use it in a hotel.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[rizawbone]

tara reid (who is that?)

Usually people would reply to this qustion by saying 'google it'. The fact you were one click away from knowing everything about Tara Reid, imdb listing to botched boob job photos, puts you into a new class of laziness that can probably be detected from space.

Congrats.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[oiarbovnb]

my comment regarding Tara Reid was not aimed at someone describing to me who she is, because I did in fact search and found out that she is an actress, somewhat attractive, etc, but am still confused as to why she is the "number 1 result" (if you will) for the letter "T". What interested me, is the fact that pretty much all other results were what I consider to be "computer-related" (amazon, ebay, etc fits this category because they are online shops). Paris Hilton wins the P category because of her lovely video and for being who she is...but Tara Reid? Who the fuck is she?! Make sense?

Re:Is it any coincidence

[iturbide]

Going through the alphabet I'm guessing it's just whatever people search for most frequently.

But who the hell is Tara Reid?

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Blue Stone]

>>I guess this just proves that porn really does drive every new technology ;-)

No entry at all for "pussy" though.

"Dick" on the other hand is there.

OMG! Google is gay!

Re:Is it any coincidence

[multipartmixed]

> tara reid (who is that?)

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/reidslip.html

Make sure you scroll all the way down.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Anonymous Coward]

i think it's pseudo-alphabetical or something like that.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[farghen]

When you type "f", the first suggestion is "firefox".

Re:Is it any coincidence

[smeenz]

Google Labs FAQ:

I don't want anyone to know I'm into lemur racing. Is my information private? Yes, your information is private. Google Suggest does not base its suggestions on your personal searches, although it does use information about the relative popularity of common searches to rank its suggestions. Your Google Suggest searches, like all the information you send to Google, are covered under Google's privacy policy.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[BreadMan]

Next, first letter hacking for google suggest.

Try W (Walmart, 2nd), S (Sears, 2nd), B (BestBuy, 1st), L (Lowes, 2nd), and for I Ikea beat Ipod. You can't buy advertising like that, or maybe somebody did.

Interesting how many of the first letters point to shopping sites.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[legirons]

"h suggests "hotmail", and x suggests "x-box""

Anyone have the full "A-Z as searched by google"?

Re:Is it any coincidence

[legirons]

Amazon
Best buy
CNN
Dictionary
Ebay
Firefox
Games
Hotmai l
Ikea
Jokes
Kazaa
Lyrics
Mapquest
News
Onl ine dictionary
Paris Hilton
Quotes
Recipes
Spybot
Tara reid
UPS
Verizon
Weather
XBox
Yahoo
Zip codes

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Richard_J_N]

More usefully: f -> firefox

Re:Is it any coincidence

[legirons]

There also seems to be a strong "alphabetical order first" preference, so for example LI will match:

Limewire: 762,000
Lindsay lohan: 595,000
Linksys: 8,990,000
Lingerie: 23,400,000
Linux: 204,000,000
Linkin park: 1,940,000
Linen and things: 800,000

Note to the squeamish: yes that means Linux is nine times as interesting as lingerie. "Go catch those fish, dear..."

Re:Is it any coincidence

[Headcase88]

That explains Paris Hilton, Tara Reid and MapQuest.

Re:Is it any coincidence

[foniksonik]

"and no, it's not a hotel!"

Depends who you ask.. I mean the millions of spermatozoa thought it was just that... then their reservations were canceled.

Neat, but on older systems...

[keraneuology]

I know many systems that are still in use that won't be able to handle this. I also hate any drop down box that has more than 5-6 options so for my tastes it is a little long.

Suggest failed

[SunPin]

I typed "tits" and it drew a blank.

Re:Suggest failed

[aurb]

The same with porn, sex, but fortunately pr0n worked =-)

Re:Suggest failed

[Anonymous Coward]

Starting with "nicest" brought up a lot of suggestions though.

Re:Suggest failed

[pete-classic]

Is English your second language? We, confusingly enough, put adjectives before the nouns they refer to.

For example, the first suggestion for "pendulous" is "breasts."

-Peter

Re:Suggest failed

[sketerpot]

If you can't be bothered to type all four letters of "porn" without autocompletion, you are a lazy bastard who doesn't deserve any. But if you're diligent enough to type "pr0n" just to figure out Google's autocompletion, then I hope Google dishes out a lot of it to you.

Re:Suggest failed

[Anonymous Coward]

Try dirty sanchez...

Re:Suggest failed

[phishst1k]

I was curious to see how it would respond to "bad" words and it appears once it figures out what you're going after, and it doesn't like it that it just won't offer suggestions. ex. SEX S.....E.....then it drops and won't offer any thing more. What if I wanted to look up sexuality? Same with "porn" and particular body parts. Not that this is a bad thing...but there is a filter behind this I would think so that it doesn't pop up "bad" things for people who are just looking up "popcorn".

Now that I like..

[dustinbarbour]

Numerous times I am forced to look something up without know precisely how to spell it. This should make it easier to find what I'm looking for. Granted, I don't think their dictionary will contain the names of off-the-wall places like Mike's Crabshack, but they do seem to have a rather large dictionary.

Re:Now that I like..

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like you need to know how to spell the beginning, at least -- it is doing prefix matching (ie "whi" -> "white") not spelling suggestions. For example it includes in its suggestion list "new yrok times" which has only 5000 est hits, and only on the results page does it say "did you mean New York Times?"

Doesn't work for me.

[bchernicoff]

It behaves exactly as the normal Google search page.

Re:Doesn't work for me.

[b00stA]

Well, what browser (version?) are you using?

blow...

[Anonymous Coward]

looking for "blow..."
google suggests a blow job
oh what fun

All I want is SEX....

[ilikeitraw]

... and I get SEARS !? SEARS is not sexy. It is probably the extreme opposite.
Google needs to open there eyes and know that some people (mostly male I assume) need extremely quick "relevant" results when they are out of passwords, and ... eh... need extremely "quick" results.

Re:All I want is SEX....

[Anonymous Coward]

... and I get SEARS !? SEARS is not sexy. It is probably the extreme opposite.

You young wipersnappers never had to whack off with the sears catalog, I see...

Does not work with Opera 7.54

[tomcio]

What is it with google and Opera hate?

All the sites, not just them.

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[Anonymous Coward]

Go whine someplace else. Opera dons't fill a need. Mozilla is free and MS has its tax. If Opera dosn't work right then complain to them and spend your money on education.

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[Freexe]

It almost works with opera 7.6,
and gmail works with 7.6, it supports javascript talking to the server more with that version

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[Anonymous Coward]

Works fine with 7.54 here (Windows XP, default settings).

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[Stealth Potato]

In my experience, Opera is a really finicky browser to work with compliantly. Maybe that's a good thing, but sometimes it's just not worth the trouble when you're trying to get your site to just work with Mozilla/FF and IE. Then there's the fact that you have to pay for Opera to remove those silly ads, and the fact that not that many people use it anyway... I have the ad-loaded version of Opera for compatibility testing with my web pages, but good lord, I'd never use that thing for web browsing. All that interface seems like overkill.

It doesn't surprise me at all that Google would put Mozilla and IE compatibility before Opera. Maybe they'll support it someday though. ;-)

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[Anonymous Coward]

It works for me with opera 7.54.

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[aldoman]

And it's not that Opera doesn't support XMLHTTPRequest which is vital for this sort of stuff?

That's why GMail doesn't work. 7.60 will have it but it's STILL missing lots of other DOM elements (inline spellchecking won't work without them, for example).

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, buddy

Nobody gives a shit

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[b00stA]

It's working just fine with Opera 7.54 Build 3865
The Google Suggest FAQ even lists Opera as one of the compatible browsers, so I don't know exactly what you're talking about. Anyway, the Opera interface is extremely customizable and it is in fact quite similiar to Firefox imho.

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[b00stA]

http://img16.exs.cx/img16/8518/suggestopera9jt.png
using 7.54
Where's the problem? It works fine for me. Maybe you disabled a certain feature.

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[Stealth Potato]

Hm. You're right. When I posted my first reply, I was at a computer sans Opera, so I assumed the great-grandparent poster was correct without actually being able to check for myself. :-P

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[Anonymous Coward]

opera's not a more standards-compliant browser but it IS a faster browser. and those Opera guys are quite innovative.. first ones to have mouse gestures etc etc.

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[hkmwbz]

"In my experience, Opera is a really finicky browser to work with compliantly."

Not really. If you know what you are doing, you shouldn't have any problems with Opera.

"the fact that not that many people use it anyway..."

If by "not that many people", you mean "millions of people", then you are probably right. Opera does have a market share of 2-3 per cent worldwide, and in many European countries it has an even higher market share.

Re:Does not work with Opera 7.54

[TheJavaGuy]

See Opera Watch for a work-around on Using Google Suggest with Opera's Auto-Complete.

Fun but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Good fun, a nice novelty, but is this actually useful to anyone?

Re:Fun but...

[bogaboga]

Useful to me. Infact I am very impressed.

My view

[bogaboga]

I am very impressed. Very impressed indeed. But what can be done in case one's idea of a term is essentially mis-spelled?

Advertising potential

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how long it will take before companies are able to pay for their 'suggestions' to show up at the top of the list.

Re:Advertising potential

[luuc]

Type in:

a => amazon
b => best buy
c => cnn
e => ebay
f => firefox (!)
h => hotmail
i => ikea
m => mapquest
u => ups
v => verizon
x => xbox
y => yahoo

Great...

Re:Advertising potential

[Khomar]

My guess is that they are sorting the list roughly by most popular searches in alphabetical order. I see a much more interesting use for this technology: determining which search parameters people are using to search for products your company produces. This could be very useful for web developers trying to boost their search rankings.

Re:Advertising potential

[ciroknight]

...Everyone seems to not notice (intentionally?) that the order of the terms that come up is the order of Popularity; ie a term gets searched for more/quoted more, it's nearer to the top of the list. (Or at least, this is how I have noticed it; an alternative is that it goes by the highest PageRank).

Re:Advertising potential

[Zordok]

Well, Google doesn't put ads in with search results, but rather clearly marks them and places them off to the side or two small lines at the top.
This leads me to beleive that they would keep such "sponsored links" out of the autocomplete list, or at least continue clearly marking them as sponsored links.

-Z

Re:Advertising potential

[hackstraw]

I wonder how long it will take before companies are able to pay for their 'suggestions' to show up at the top of the list.

Google will take your money for any keyword. Plus I believe that ebay has already bought every word in the dictionary (or not).

Re:Advertising potential

[mrshoe]

It will take infinitely long. Google's ads are separate from search results, and I imagine that applies to the suggestions as well. The suggestions at the top of the list are there because they are searched for more frequently than the others, not because they are sponsored.

P...aris Hilton

[joshua42]

p -> Paris Hilton

Very useful, thank you.

Re:P...aris Hilton

[sulli]

Hey, some people are making European travel plans!

Re:P...aris Hilton

[QuantumRiff]

t -> tara reid

Re:P...aris Hilton

[Anonymous Coward]

w -> what the fuck was so funny about "p -> Paris Hilton"?

Wow

[pHatidic]

That is amazingly fast. What language do you think that menu was programmed in?

Re:Wow

[Moth7]

Don't know about the backend, but the frontend appears to be written in Javascript. Assuming that is the frontend - I didn't have time to check anything more than the fact that it's included by the completion page and not by regular google.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

JavaScript runs an XMLHTTP request to Google's servers, which return the autocomplete results for display. Every single time the query string is modified.

Re:Wow

[jschottm]

What language do you think that menu was programmed in?

I suspect the backend is C, but the browser part is obfuscated javascript. Here's an easy link to the code:

http://www.google.com/ac.js

I'm somewhat surprised that it runs as fast as it does. They use javascript obfuscation with gmail as well, so I imagine they spent some time developing hard to read techniques that still execute quickly.

Re:Wow

[Freexe]

Its javascript, using the XMLHTTP object to communicate with the server directly

You can see it http://www.google.com/ac.js cant say i understand it, Gmail using the same thing but way more advanced.

Re:Wow

[imsabbel]

There is no magic behind it to make it impossible to reengineer...
Its just to save bandwith, and it looks like they just removed all unneeded whitespace and renamed all variables/functions with single letters.
I had programms back in z80 times that would do the same with basic code, just to save some of the precious 64K memory.
And here, same as gmail, every item gets requested billions of times, so 20 or 30% size reduction is noticable...

Re:Wow

[b00stA]

Wouldn't it be better to ask how they programmed it?
I suppose they keep a recent list of the most popular search terms (see "P" -> Paris Hilton), but as soon as you get more specific, Google starts looking it up specifically.
That would explain the speed but still, managing a database of the most popular search terms is a lot of work.

Re:Wow

[Gerv]

"Gmail using the same thing but way more advanced."

Actually, Gmail's is probably less advanced in some ways. I'd be willing to bet they cache your entire address book at the client - for this reason and many others. It's certainly too fast to be making requests when you type.

Gerv

Good for seeing what popular searches are.

[altgrr]

And, if you type in "speed o", fourth or so on the list is the ever popular speed of light in furlongs per fortnight.

How does this come up with results, though? Does it just base them on the popularity of the search, or does it base them on how many produce results that users click through to?

No good...

[Omicron32]

Hmmm....

p -> paris hilton
po -> poems
por -> porsche

I'd say it's pretty obvious what I intend to search for. This thing is utterly useless. (Although, in it's favour, I must say the Paris Hilton first link was pretty good.) :)

Re:No good...

[operagost]

Because you misspelled it! It should be "pr0n."

Re:No good...

[Anonymous Coward]

pr -> pregnancy, prom dresses
nice.

Re:No good...

[Phleg]

Perhaps maybe you don't know what you're trying to search for?

p -> paris hilton
pr -> pregnancy
pr0 -> pr0n

Seems to work just fine for me.

awesome

[Apreche]

this is the awesome. How can I integrate it with the search box in firefox? I feel an extension coming on.

Re:awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you could decipher the Javascript and reimplement it using the native dropdown/autocomplete widget.

Bleah

[TooMuchEspressoGuy]

This seems like something little better than that annoying feature in MS Word that tries to correct every word you type. In short, I'd rather it be made an optional feature, so that when I'm searching for Cthulhu it doesn't suggest, say, Thulium. I want to search for Lovecraftian dark gods and not the 69th element on the periodic table, doggoneit!

(Note that this suggestion is actually what was offered while typing out the Great Old One's name in MS Word.)

Re:Bleah

[kaustik]

Your comment is completely meaningless. You didn't even have to rtfa, just visit the page and type a couple of letters.
Typing "Cthu" brings up exactly what you are looking for. This is nothing like the feature in Word. Next time try the link before you post.

Re:Bleah

[Hyecee]

Try it with Google Suggest:

Cth...

Aaaand there it is, second in the list.

I realize you were just making a point, but it was my motivation to try it out!

Notes

[parmadil]

* It works on KHTML-based Safari, so it the crash must be a Konq-specific problem.

* It ignores, um, non-work-safe input.

* It works fine on moderately esoteric topics -- I started typing n-s-a-r and it found NSArray, NSArrayController, NSArchiver, etc.

How is it so FAST!?

[topham]

It is blazingly fast. I expected it to be slowwwww.
Can somebody outline how it works?

Re:How is it so FAST!?

[10000000000000000000]

well, they assign 481.2 million Chinese to read what you are typing and make suggestions!
that's how!

Re:How is it so FAST!?

[mbyte]

hmm, i think it loads the search results in the background. When i type in some text and look at my squid logs i see several of the following queries:

http://www.google.com/complete/search?

So, basicly they use some javascript to handle on keypress event, send the data to google and back, and display them .. but i'm also amazed how fast it is ! (one point can be that the search pages result about 500-1000 bytes ..)

Re:How is it so FAST!?

[Anonymous Coward]

It generates a google request on every keystroke.

Re:How is it so FAST!?

[loconet]

Everytime you type a letter, it requests a special modified version of the search tool which only returns the necessary javascript data.

check itout

Impressive

Re:How is it so FAST!?

[nacturation]

Type livesearch into the box and hit I'm feeling lucky. You'll then find the details of what I'm positive inspired this. Essentially, as you type it passes data via an XMLHttpRequest control to the server which then returns a list of the top 10 elements and the page gets updated.

Re:How is it so FAST!?

[frankvl]

This is common practice, nothing new here; change the src attribute of a javascript block and it will be loaded and executed automatically (at least in IE).

Re:How is it so FAST!?

[Jerf]

Interesting, a friend and I just stumbled across just this technique recently.

Some stats and info: I was actually sending a lot more data, on the order of 20-30KB. I tried Mozilla's built in RDF support, a customized mini-language parsed in javascript and retrieved with XMLHttpRequest, and a script loaded much like this (though I add some post-processing on the data).

Ignoring retrieval time, Mozilla's RDF parsing time was 2 seconds. My custom code took .4 seconds to parse my little language with one pass on the data (effectively optimal). (IMNSHO, there is something very, very wrong with Moz's XML handling in later versions, it is much, much slower than it should be, by at least an order of magnitude. It should not have lost to my pure JS solution, at least not that badly.) Sending down pure Javascript was parsed in .02 seconds, including post-processing. At this point I stopped trying to optimize, both because the timer resolution is only in milliseconds anyhow, and because the parsing was then swamped by the delay in XMLHttpRequest (which also seems a little slow in Mozilla... 400ms to retrieve something off of the local loopback interface? Here's a hint, do not use synchronous requests, that pushes the delay back up into the 2-second range, again, reasons unknown).

To confirm the numbers above are not typos, yes, sending JS parses a hundred times faster than RDF data (and is more flexible to boot, since you can use programmatic tricks, including easy-once-you-think-of-them tricks to simulate the ability to reference something you haven't loaded yet...).

All times are on Moz 1.7.3 on my lil' 500 MHz Duron laptop. Your milage will vary, but remember some of us still have crappy computers...

At this point, if you're doing RPC in the browser, I absolutely have to recommend doing what Google is doing. Nothing else comes even close; not only is it the fastest solution, it is very cross-platform, too. Just watch the escaping on the code that generates JS; JS allows octal constants for characters as a backslash followed by a number and I'm very conservative about what I convert.

Re:How is it so FAST!?

[Reziac]

Hey, cool, using your link produced the list of results -- even with javascript turned off! It comes back as plain text, but fast as hell. Nifty.

I'm disappointed

[SeanDuggan]

What, no "tits Audobon society"?

google whacks

[manganese4]

Well it definitely makes it easier to look for google whacks

Newsworthy?

[31415926535897]

Sorry if this is offtopic or considered flamebait, but...

Why does everything Google does get on the front page of Slashdot?

Don't get me wrong, I love Google, and this is a neat feature, but this makes it to the front page?

Perhaps because it's innovative? No, this has been in various software products for years (especially notable on PDAs like the iPaq). Maybe it's really novel because it's on the web? Yes, it's on the Internet now so Google should patent it!

Sorry, but I just get this feeling that when I see "The next story will be posted soon..." that it will be a story about how Google or Apple will have done something trivial (look, a 3d button on the web!) but we're all supposed to start drooling over it.

Re:Newsworthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot is taco's blog and he wants to share google storys, don't like it, start your own.

Re:Newsworthy?

[geoffspear]

Why don't you code an identical feature on your own page, and come back in 20 minutes when you're done to tell us how trivial it is.

Re:Newsworthy?

[ciroknight]

1) This is slashdot, and one of the companies slashdot loves is Google. Same with Apple, and to an extent, Microsoft (mostly out of hatred). You should come here with the expectation of this.

2) Slashdot does not have a "backpage", so front page is the only place for it.

3) By including disclaimers like "sorry if this is offtopic or considered flamebait", you know that what you are saying is going to be negatively modded, and are trying to save it's face. If you have a negative opinion about the above companies (or the inverse; a positive position on Microsoft), expect to be modded accordingly.

This has been a slashdot public service announcement.

Re:Newsworthy?

[KillaKen187]

Are you new here? You must be new here... Don't you know this is slashdot and anything Google is news. Oh and BTW GOOG is don 0.21 as of 12:49PM ET

Re:Newsworthy?

[nacturation]

... you know that what you are saying is going to be negatively modded, and are trying to save it's face.

BTW, the correct usage is "to save face" which, roughly, means to avoid embarassment as you undoubtedly know. Since a posting on slashdot can't be embarassed (unless posts have somehow become sentient) you can't save a post's face. Nor can you save anyone else's face. "Wow, he was about to do something really dumb but I saved his face." It just doesn't work.

This has been a slashdot public service announcement.

Google Su

[10000000000000000000]

type that and see what the first result is :]

Re:Google Su

[kid nickng]

showing Google is a neutral search engine

Re:Google Su

[10000000000000000000]

indeed! bless it for that too.
unlike [acoona.com]
try searching for google in it :\

on by default ?

[vluther]

I find autocomplete sometimes to be annoying, I hope
this feature will be optional with a google cookie or something. Autocomplete can sometimes be just as annoying as clippy.. imho.

As it happens

[RealProgrammer]

I was just needing a way to solve all of my problems at once.

• Dear Google,
  
  I forgive you for that newsgroups date search thing.
  And the newsgroups deep linking thing.
  And the joining the Wall Street Suits thing.
  
  I know my opinion has been on your mind, so just know we're square. Keep up the good work.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  RP

Yahoo!

[headisdead]

The results also appear to be very close aesthetically to Yahoo Mail's "AutoComplete," but are cleverer in that they don't need additional client-side software/plugins. And Yahoo! haven't been clever enough to add this to their search frontend...

Re:Yahoo!

[AntigonusPiglet]

On the other hand, Yahoo has had an "Also Try" query suggestion feature for ages.

Let's try typing in "test"

[Anonymous Coward]

test
tests
testing
testicular cancer

IT WORKS PERFECTLY

Privacy?

[Frisky070802]

I'm surprised no one has commented on privacy yet. It looks to me like it uses past queries to suggest future ones, because as soon as I zoomed in on an unusual name, it offered a couple of bizarre queries that could only have been typos (one was a two-word query, so it wasn't simply every word indexed -- unless they know every pair of words that quickly?).

I don't mind Google knowing what I ask, but I'm not sure I want the world to see them.

Re:Privacy?

[dema]

I not sure how you think "the world" will see your searches. But this is from Google's privacy policy.

Cookies
Upon your first visit to Google, a cookie is sent to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. A "cookie" is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service and to better understand how people interact with us. Google does this by storing user preferences in cookies and by tracking user trends and patterns of how people search. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some Google features or services may not function properly without cookies.

Re:Privacy?

[monkease]

I'm a member of both the LP and the ACLU--my tinfoil hat is oiled-up, rarin' to go, on a hip holster, etc.

But come on.

Come on.

Re:Privacy?

[Frisky070802]

Let's say I search for Ernest Fizzlewink, an obscure person people don't tend to look for. Later, someone looks for Ernest and it suggests Ernest Fizzlewink, so someone looks him up.

It's not my privacy per se that I'm worried about, in people tying a query to me, it's that I don't want people outside google seeing my query.

I've been to conferences (not to mention a couple of google sites) where random queries are displayed on monitors. This is already questionable IMHO, but displaying it once and keeping it around to offer to people who come close to it sometime later are very different things.

Perhaps they have a policy that queries have to occur a certain number of times to be suggested, and that would help. Even better if the queries have to come from different people. But I'm still not at ease....

Re:Privacy?

[Frisky070802]

Google always publishes querys for their contests before, as well as display it on a big scrolling board in their main office for all to watch, and what not. So already anyone really has access to all that info.

Only if that person is logging every query (and remember, those are a random subset -- probably a small one!). Suggestions seem to hit some pretty obscure queries, in my very limited trial.

Re:Privacy?

[That's Unpossible!]

I'm surprised no one has commented on privacy yet.

That's because there is no privacy issue here, AT ALL.

It looks to me like it uses past queries to suggest future ones

Correct.

I don't mind Google knowing what I ask, but I'm not sure I want the world to see them.

You must really be quite the character if you think someone could see some search terms and think, shit, I bet that was Frisky070802 that did that thar search!

Re:Privacy?

[telstar]

Not that I consider it a big deal ... but this now also changes the concept that what you type is only sent across the net once you hit enter. Each key you press now sends info across the net. For an application like this, it's not a big deal ... but I can imagine situations where this could be exploited.

While we're on the topic of typing being sent real-time versus being sent upon carriage-return, can somebody please explain how in one of the last scenes of "Sum of All Fears" all of the communication back and forth with the US and Russia is sent after the carriage-return, EXCEPT for the one where Jack Ryan gets cut off halfway through a sentence? Pissed me off.

Re:Privacy?

[frankie]

I'm sure Google keeps an enourmous database of past queries. It's part of their ranking algorithm.

And yes, they really do know every short phrase that quickly. Think about it: they easily survived a slashdotting of a very intensive application. They've got insane computing power, dedicated to text matching.

Re:Privacy?

[tyler_larson]

I'm surprised no one has commented on privacy yet.

You wouldn't have been so surprised if you had done what the rest of use did and READ THE FAQ!

http://labs.google.com/suggest/faq.html

You would have found it if you had clicked the "Learn More" link prominantly displayed on the page.

Your own previous searches are not used at all in determining results. The results you see are exactly the same results everyone else will see. You're sending the same information to Google that you send in a normal search (i.e. your query). Google is sending the same information back to you that they normally send (the results). The only things that's different is that they send each of the little pieces of it as you type them.

No one has commented on privacy yet because privacy is irrelevant. No one has commented on terrorism yet either, does that surprise you?

Re:Privacy?

[Frisky070802]

I'm still not being clear I guess. I'm not talking about it using my personal history, or you seeing my personal history. But if it suggests queries based on others' queries, then I am learning about what others are asking ... and they are learning about what I ask. That seems to be a privacy issue, to me.

Re:Privacy?

[siskbc]

I'm still not being clear I guess. I'm not talking about it using my personal history, or you seeing my personal history. But if it suggests queries based on others' queries, then I am learning about what others are asking ... and they are learning about what I ask. That seems to be a privacy issue, to me.

1. It's non-identifiable No one can find out what you searched for, so privacy is irrelevant. 2. Google never guaranteed ultrasecrecy in its terms of service. 3. If it's still throwing off your tinfoil hat, don't use google, but I wound't use any search engine, as they all make use of past searches to make later ones better.

Re:Privacy?

[Frisky070802]

I'm happy for Google to use past searches to improve its future performance, and I'm even OK with random subsets of queries being streamed on their tickers. I'm queasy about a query I ask turning up as a hint to someone else as they ask a query that starts with the same letters. If I'm looking for "NBC News" then so are lots of others, so who cares. If I'm looking for "NBC News Rupert Finkelbottom" then maybe I don't want other people who look for NBC to be prompted for old Rupert.

From the FAQ it sounds like they may take pains to limit this to more common queries, which would be good. But I still can't explain some of the ones it offered to me, relating to very obscure search terms.

Good idea.

[Azul]

What a useful idea, form autocomplete based on popular search terms implemented entirely in JavaScript and showing you the number of results your search would produce. Makes you wonder why nobody had implemented this feature before.

Hmm, the number of results it reports that each search would produce seem to be slightly less than the actual number of results they do. I suppose they need to resync their databases.

I can see it now

[Timesprout]

"It looks like you are searching for lesbian porn, would you like some help with that?"

"It looks like you are searching for lesbian porn again, do you remember what I showed you last time?"

"I know, I know, Lesbian porn,and can you rate these pages so I can update my page index?"

"Hello freak, try these"

Re:I can see it now

[BarryJacobsen]

Oddly if you type in lesb, it doesn't give lesbian, but does give lesbien, which doesn't appear to be an English word. It does suggest over 4 million results for gay boys, though, [cheapshot] or so my priest told me.[/cheapshot]

Re:I can see it now

[decipher_saint]

Then pray to God that Google doesn't find out about Codebaby.

Worst. Idea. Ever!

Re:I can see it now

[jesser]

Interesting. It omits "sex", "porn", and "lesbian", but not "gay".

The ABCs of Google Complete

[Hatta]

A is for Amazon
B is for Best Buy
C is for CNN
D is for Dictionary
E is for Ebay
F is for Firefox (yay!)
G is for Games
H is for Hotmail
I is for Ikea
J is for Jokes
K is for Kazaa
L is for Lyrics
M is for Mapquest
N is for News
O is for Online dictionary
P is for Paris Hilton (wtf?!)
Q is for Quotes
R is for Recipes
S is for Spybot
T is for Tara Reid
U is for Ups
V is for Verizon
W is for Weather
X is for Xbox
Y is for Yahoo
Z is for Zip Codes

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[dwvanstone]

Just to add to the list:

1 is for 1
2 is for 2004 election
3 is for 3m
4 is for 411
5 is for 50 cent
6 is for 60 minutes
7 is for 7th heaven
8 is for 89.com (as bad as Paris Hilton!!)
9 is for 911

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[cadillactux]

Its interesting to see the top results for every letter. As everyone has noticed, Paris Hilton... Tara Reid? Xbox beats playstation? OR perhaps that simply becasue Paris beats Playstation any day, but it doesnt even show up in the first 10 results? Thinks like Firefox bening first, and Internet Explorer 4th, I didn't think ikea was THAT big? Kazaa was a given. Google was second only to games. And Verizon takes the top two, although V has less words. Also with V are a number of Virgin Mobile entries. Cell phones are hot stuff (not like anyone didnt know that)

Okay, so this isnt a definitive outlook on todays culture, but it is a pretty interesting look at internet surfing trends.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[Woogiemonger]

P is for Paris Hilton (wtf?!)

The fact that Paris Hilton is #1 for P does tell you that the suggestions are the most popular at the present, rather than just cumulatively popular over time. Paris Hilton beating out the #2 choice, PC World, might seem unfathomable to the /. community, but rest assured this Paris Hilton fad will end.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[Zorilla]

Quick! Somebody do Kanji now!

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[Anonymous Coward]

Explain THIS though:
x : xbox
xx: xxl
xxx:

p: paris hilton
po: poems
por: porsche
porn:

s: spybot
se: sears
sex:

Somehow, I don't think these are based purely on search requests :)

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[cmstremi]

© is for ©
® is for ® symbol ...and most punctuation is for nothing, it seems.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[BarryJacobsen]

I didn't think ikea was THAT big

The only book that has more copies published than the bible is the IKEA catalog. I'd say that's bigger than Jesus, so they're pretty big.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[witcomb]

That is based on alphabetics ordering, I think it would make more sense to sort based on rating. That has a little more significance when it comes to google.

A is amazon
B is for BBC
C is for cars
D is for Dell
E is for Ebay
G is for games
H is for http
I is for index
J is for jobs
K is for kelkoo
L is for love
M is for music
N is for news
O is for online games
P is for pubmed
Q is for quotes
R is for ringtones
S is for s (that is weird)
T is for target
U is for UPS
V is for virgin
W is for weather
X is for xbox
Y is for Yahoo
Z is for zdnet

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[mottie]

I like how Paris Hilton draws a WTF but Tara Reid doesn't.. all of slashdot now knows that you have a preference towards fake boobs

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[ad0gg]

Popularity info they are using is old. Number search for C right now is christmas, which is the number 1 search term currently.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[kzinti]

That is based on alphabetics ordering, I think it would make more sense to sort based on rating.

Google is ranking these suggestions so that the ones you're most likely to search for are higher. So even though 's' has more hits than 'spybot', Google thinks you're more likely to search for 'spybot'. That makes sense - the terms people search for most often are not necessarily the pages with the most search results (or the highest Pagerank).

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[kenelbow]

0 is for 02

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[erotic_pie]

only thing I can think of is that it doesn't do "suggestive" things, I tried fuck and it didn't show anything :-P

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[dalleboy]

But pr0 is for pr0n!

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[Anonymous Coward]

Blowjob and blowjobs, however, are handled as expected.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[iabervon]

People are clearly incompetent. The pages you want for amazon, bestbuy, cnn, ebay, firefox, hotmail, ikea, kazaa, mapquest, ups, verizon, yahoo, and xbox are all http://www.(name).com. Reasonable pages for dictionary and weather are the same.

There's something especially funny about people searching for yahoo on google.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[ricka0]

I find humor in people searching google for yahoo.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[UserGoogol]

Google Suggest has a crappy filter running on it.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[Doctor Crumb]

actually, I think it's doing that because when you type xxx, porn, or sex, it's pretty obvious what you want to find, while anything shorter is still ambiguous. They are suggesting searches, not actually doing the search.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[Anonymous Coward]

Check www.awfulplasticsurgery.com to get disabused of your love affair with both Paris and Tara.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks God for small favours!

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[geekguy]

They seem to have linked it all under pr0n, that brings up lots of choices.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[h4ter]

'porn' isn't there, but 'pr0n' is.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[JasontheMason]

...and 10 is for 10 commandments! And I'm even at a public terminal.

But why is 0 for 02?

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[JasontheMason]

But can it tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

JtM

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[Anonymous Coward]

9 is for 911
Guess someone was looking up the number for 911 again... DOH!

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[Dolly_Llama]

1 is for 1

but what is the first result for "1"?

http://www.mozilla.org/

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[illuin]

Good lord. People have to search for some of these things? I mean seriously, what do they *think* is going to be the top result for amazon, ebay, hotmail, or yahoo?

These folks must also have the listing 911 bookmarked in their phonebook -- you know, for emergencies.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[legirons]

"So even though 's' has more hits than 'spybot', Google thinks you're more likely to search for 'spybot'."

Interestingly (or not), I use "s, down-arrow, enter" as a quick way to get to slashdot using browser autocomplete. But if something happens in the wrong order, you get to the "I'm feeling lucky search for s", which is Hoover (the vacuum-cleaner manufacturers), a site that I always think is slightly freaky that they've taken the letter s as a website. Although on checking it now, the top result seems to be McDonalds, the grease-sellers, which is every bit as odd. (not a parity joke, honest)

s

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[telstar]

How come 8 is 89 and 6 isn't 69?
Maybe they're waiting for Paris Hilton's NEXT video.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete

[UniDyne]

They're auto-filtered search terms. It's not working with the moderate safe-search yet, so those terms seem to be just plain turned off.

Also, anything that doesn't have statistics doesn't show any.

I wonder...

[Lizard_King]

... how they prioritize the suggestions in the list. It's definitely not by the number of results per suggestion. Are there any revenue opportunities here for GOOG?

Re:I wonder...

[Anonymous Coward]

Number of searches.

Re:I wonder...

[Chris Ashton 84]

They've got more data then they'll ever know what to do with. My guess is they probably look up the top ten searches matching the input, sorted by the number of click searches.

I'm not suprised that more people search for Paris Hilton then PC World or Paypal, or that more people search for weather then walmart or whitepages... the order seems to make sense.

Re:I wonder...

[hackstraw]

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." - Jack Nicholson

In case anyone does not know, Nicholson found out in adulthood that his "sister" was really his mother. She had Nick when she was in HS or something.

Lovely quote.

Hard to not see this as for google, not for us

[barchibald]

Hey:

Seems like this is a slippery slope toward increasing searches on indentified keywords, rather an unpredictable search words. If it can't be predicted and isn't common then it can't be sold via adwords.

If they can consolodate outlier searches that they believe (or can convince the searcher) are really looking for something that is more commonly searched for via a specific phrase then its in their interest to do it.

Other than spelling mistakes, what value is this to the user? I just gon't see it as much more than a way of increasing google $.

Re:Hard to not see this as for google, not for us

[dustinbarbour]

Don't worry, dude.. I don't see Google Suggest taking over standard Google. You can still use your unpredictable queries there.

Re:Hard to not see this as for google, not for us

[hobo2k]

Is autocomplete useful? I think so. This gives you a pre-populated autocomplete list. That sounds pretty useful to me, but I'd have to use it for a few days to really decide.

Sometimes I actually rely on the built-in autocomplete to save information for me that I might want later but don't want to bookmark yet.

To really be useful though, I would need it in the firefox toolbar. I never go to the google homepage anymore.

Google suggests wrong spelling as well

[witcomb]

I figured I would look up mountain biking. However, in my quick typing I entered mountian instead and it continued and accepted that. It gave me many valid searches, which I probably wouldn't have found if I entered the search string properly. Of course, it did indicate that mountain was spelled incorrectly as normal.

I figured this could be a useful feature as you probably don't make an effort to misspell your entries, yet many items on the web could have useful information with the misspelled word. So, I entered mount to see the completion, and no mountian, just correctly spelled words.

I guess we'll just have to continue to misspell everything.

Re:Google suggests wrong spelling as well

[Anonymous Coward]

It only *suggests* for the entire search string, (not the individual terms) so the more terms you enter the less likely it is to show alternatives.

Test results

[carniz]

p..r..0...[nothing suggested]

This is crap. I expected it to suggest pr0n already after the P.

Re:Test results

[Anonymous Coward]

It worked for me. Maybe you should type it without all the .'s

What are these people making ?

[Gori]

Im am wondering more and more what is Google really upto.
Worlds biggest distributed operating system, a cache of each page they every visit, predictive text input, remebers everything you ever seaarched for, never throw anything away email, search your desktop, and any scientiffic thing ever published....
Soon, we will not be browsing the web, we will be browsing google....
Anybody dare to phantasize what this all means ?

Litigious Bastards

[luuc]

Top result for "liti..."

Browser Wars

[alva_edison]

Before more people complain that their browser doesn't work, here's [labs.google.com]what google specifies as the browser requirements.

Re:Browser Wars

[p3d0]

Dude, you don't have to add the domain in brackets after the link. Slashdot does that for you.

Re:Browser Wars

[fleener]

Except I'm using Firefox 1.0 and see none of what's being described here. No suggestions. It works the same as regular Google. How boring.

Re:Browser Wars

[alva_edison]

I'm also using Firefox 1.0. The text complete also requires Cookies and JavaScript. And it's only in beta, so it's located here. Note, this is an updated address at www.google.com, not at labs.google.com.

Re:Browser Wars

[Anonymous Coward]

Ohhhh. Google is the last company I'd want to accept cookies from.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Didn't Microsdoft patent this?

[jaal]

I remember long back, one thread on slashdot where it was discussed how microsoft patented the idea of showing the options as the user types in. I am not sure though.

Re:Didn't Microsdoft patent this?

[Anonymous Coward]

my guess is microsoft patented it on the client side.

Just like Gmail

[Lizard_King]

It looks very similar to the technology Google uses in Gmail. When you compose a new message, as soon as you start typing in email addresses in the To: field, Gmail presents a similar drop down box with matching suggestions from your contacts.

Comment Post!

[Zorilla]

Google Suggest - brought to you by the grammar that gave you Secret Collect!

mod parent up

[Anonymous Coward]

Konq ok here too. 3.3.2/

Re:Mod Parent Up

[Jerf]

I honestly don't know what it is, and I want to explicitly say I'm not trying to draw global conclusions from this data. When I was doing this I was mostly concerned with getting it to work, not about why, if you know what I mean. I do know on a Windows box with 1.7.3 the timing was similar.

Researching this has been added to our "things to do when there is nothing else to do" list, but you know how often developers get there.

I'm conflicted; if there was an obvious speedup, I gotta think somebody would have noticed by now. But I also gotta think that even Mozilla, which needs a full-scale XML parser and does a lot of stuff with it, should be faster. Clearly, I'm wrong somewhere...

Konqueror

[topace]

Works great here in Konqueror 3.3.1

Weetabix

[Vollernurd]

What the hell have the Google guys been eating? It was a plain ol' fashioned search engine for years, then in the space of 6 months they offer email, that desktop search thing, a server for people to buy, etc...

I'll have what they're having.

Where's the profit?

[slapout]

The question I have is will these autocomplete words be words that advertisers pay to be there? Or will they actually be the most popluar stuff searched for?

Google starts to suck

[kompiluj]

Well the new Groups really suck - try reading any group that deals with postfix or sendmail - all examples really screwed up.
And now that... - Google is going the same way that all went. Take for instance Microsoft. Ten years ago it was the icon of geekhood, they made a really good compiler, assembler and whatnot. And now? They even had a lapse of sobriety with Win 2k - quite a decent product - but it finally got fscked up by creeping featuritis disease when transformed into Win XP Proffesional.
And now Google. Bill Gates is ready to welcome you in the club.

Re:Google starts to suck

[diamondsw]

So they screwed up Groups. What does that have to do with Suggest, which looks like a classic "awesome! why didn't anyone else do it that way?" Google feature?

Re:Google starts to suck

[johansalk]

Yes, the new Groups is a major headache that I stopped using it. It has no decent way to navigate around or keep up with a long thread without stressing yourself out.

Re:Google starts to suck

[tesmako]

Take for instance Microsoft. Ten years ago it was the icon of geekhood, they made a really good compiler, assembler and whatnot.

What? Are you trying to rewrite history in some way? I would say that the acceptance of Microsoft products have never really been higher than it is today. All OS's they had before 2k were disgraces. XP is popular and far from the resource hog slashdotters like to pretend that it is (have a look at any other desktop environment), in fact the system requirement leap between 2k and XP was far smaller than many jumps before when factoring in the progress of hardware. I don't see anything wrong with the current development tools that Microsoft has either (in fact, they too sure seem to be better today than they have ever before been).

Really, the last five years of Microsoft products have done a lot to convince me that MS knows what they are doing, Linux seems further from being able to conquer the desktop market today than it did in 1999.

Re:Google starts to suck

[That's Unpossible!]

Yes, Google is testing one of the coolest features I've ever seen on a website...

They sure are starting to suck.

Re:Google starts to suck

[Anonymous Coward]

its usenet for christs sake. access it with a newsreader like you're meant to. and if you can't, be happy google is there to help in any way.

Re:Google starts to suck

[natd]

Take for instance Microsoft. Ten years ago it was the icon of geekhood

WHAT? In 1994 MS was still the OS that the 'geeks' were praying wouldn't continue to rise. Geeks had their Unix on Suns, HPs, DECs...even the good old Amiga and of course Linux. I recall the 'DOS' and 'Windows' users from that time and they were *NOT* geeks. They were ultra-conservatives afraid not to fit in or be part of mainstream computing. They were the ones that didn't need to enter into discussions on other platforms because a) they were using Microsoft products and b) The loved Microsoft. If anything, it's more geeky now as 2k and xp aren't quite so pathetic as earlier versions.

Re:Google starts to suck

[evilviper]

All OS's they had before 2k were disgraces.

Clearly, you've never used NT 4 (or even 3.51), which were super-fast, incredibly stable, and were much easier to maintain.

With 2000, the NT series got what the consumer series had forever... An OS that commits suicide in the background for no apparent reason.

S = MacDonalds or Hoovers?

[caluml]

The fact that a lot of people search for "s" makes me wonder if they have the same problem as me in Firefox. I can't remember what I do, but it ends up searching for "s", and I end up at MacDonalds or Hoovers.

No, I mean down.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it seems to work, until you type anything more that a few chareters long!.

Re:No, I mean down.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it works for me using Konqueror 3.3.2 even with "donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitaetenhauptbetriebs werkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft"

What Google needs is Lexis-Nexis and Journal tabs

[F34nor]

What Google really needs is a for pay LexisNexis tab so you can find real information from real sources in real time. That and a tab that indexes full text medical and science journals. Those damn journals! I love em but I don't have hundreds of dollars a year for each Psych. journal I want to read and hate going to libraries if I just want to see what's shaking in the world of science. With full text periodicals and full test journal search Google would become a singularity of information.

...meets google and the net

[bicho]

clippy...

Cock Block

[Voltara]

I tried searching for information on my pet cockatiels, but google cut me off at "cock"!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

sp chker

[demon411]

when i can't spell something, i just type the word into google and press search and it spell checks it for me. autocomplete is nifty that it gives the # of results for each possibility

-a is for amazon, b is for best buy, and c is for cnn top 9 reasons to quit slashdot today

Hmm. Does interfere with FireFox autocomplete

[DollyTheSheep]

I have a list of queries, which I repeat every day or week or so. FireFox has now gathered them in its own form autocomplete. Now google interferes that with queries, I don't want to submit.

Re:Hmm. Does interfere with FireFox autocomplete

[calibanDNS]

Here's what I do with lists that I like to check up on every few days:

Create a new folder in the Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar Folder. But a bookmark of each of your queries in this folder. Right click on the folder on the bookmarks toolbar and choose "Open in tabs". This will open each bookmark in its own tab.

Is that so?

[Moth7]

If you consider "blow job" to be work-safe, may I enquire as to your line of work? ;-)

Re:Is that so?

[nacturation]

If you consider "blow job" to be work-safe, may I enquire as to your line of work? ;-)

Glass blower? "Hey, Mike... that customer liked his vase and wants us to create another blow job for his living room." Okay, it's a stretch...

some curses are bad, others ok

[Anonymous Coward]

It won't suggest fuck, but it will suggest shit. It won't suggest ass or asshole, but it will suggest asshat.

Ok, it's interesting

[TheAwfulTruth]

All joking about Paris Hilton aside, once you've typed in most of your search word(s) it does offer some interesting alternatives for more tightly defining a search, or searching for your subject on peoples pages that can't spell.

But they should probably not even start making alist till 4-5 characters are typed, before that it's just suggesting stupid things.

Also, it uses JavaScript. I have never had to "trust" google to use it before and as time goes on I have less reason to truly trust them, I don't know how it could be done without using JS but I really hope they exhausted all other options before deciding to use it. At least if you have JS turned off the search box still functions as it always did, so if this makes it into the main page, you won;t be forced to turn it on (or switch search providers) if you don't want.

Can't figure out that ordering system though, it's not alphabetical, and not string length and not frequency, is it random? As others have suggested, I too have to wonder how long before the order is determined by the amount of money they get paid.

Not like this?

[oliverthered]

Konq 3.3.2.
Try using it for a while and you'll get.

Using host libthread_db library "/lib/libthread_db.so.1".
[KCrash handler]
#7 0x409cfe74 in av_ () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkdecore.so.4
#8 0x41b6df56 in KJS::XMLHttpRequest::abort ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkhtml.so.4
#9 0x41b6f333 in KJS::XMLHttpRequestProtoFunc::tryCall ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkhtml.so.4
#10 0x41aeef77 in KJS::DOMFunction::call () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkhtml.so.4
#11 0x41c7332b in KJS::Object::call () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#12 0x41c3b09d in KJS::FunctionCallNode::evaluate ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#13 0x41c3f54a in KJS::ExprStatementNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#14 0x41c45c16 in KJS::SourceElementsNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#15 0x41c3f36d in KJS::BlockNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#16 0x41c3f8ce in KJS::IfNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#17 0x41c45c16 in KJS::SourceElementsNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#18 0x41c3f36d in KJS::BlockNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#19 0x41c45143 in KJS::FunctionBodyNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#20 0x41c6de0c in KJS::DeclaredFunctionImp::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#21 0x41c6d1bc in KJS::FunctionImp::call () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#22 0x41c7332b in KJS::Object::call () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#23 0x41c3b09d in KJS::FunctionCallNode::evaluate ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#24 0x41c3f54a in KJS::ExprStatementNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#25 0x41c45c16 in KJS::SourceElementsNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#26 0x41c3f36d in KJS::BlockNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#27 0x41c3f8ce in KJS::IfNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#28 0x41c45c8c in KJS::SourceElementsNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#29 0x41c3f36d in KJS::BlockNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#30 0x41c3f8aa in KJS::IfNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#31 0x41c45c8c in KJS::SourceElementsNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#32 0x41c3f36d in KJS::BlockNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#33 0x41c3f8ce in KJS::IfNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#34 0x41c45c16 in KJS::SourceElementsNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#35 0x41c3f36d in KJS::BlockNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#36 0x41c3f8ce in KJS::IfNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#37 0x41c45c16 in KJS::SourceElementsNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#38 0x41c3f36d in KJS::BlockNode::execute () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#39 0x41c45143 in KJS::FunctionBodyNode::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#40 0x41c6de0c in KJS::DeclaredFunctionImp::execute ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#41 0x41c6d1bc in KJS::FunctionImp::call () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#42 0x41c7332b in KJS::Object::call () from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#43 0x41c3b09d in KJS::FunctionCallNode::evaluate ()
from /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkjs.so.1
#44 0x41c3f54a in

Re:let's get all the obligatory jokes out there

[dustinbarbour]

In Korea, only old people use Google Suggest.

URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[wsanders]

So it's going in the same front door as everything else. Back ends could be completely different though.

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[SlayerofGods]

Yah it is going in the front door, that's why it's so intensive.
It's basically doing a google search every time you type in a single letter.
That's bound to heat up their servers.

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[TopShelf]

It's basically doing a google search every time you type in a single letter.

Huh? Looks more like they pass information to your browser containing the top hits for the various keystroke combinations, and a script sorts that out as you type. Going back and forth to the server with each keystroke would be nuts...

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[TopShelf]

Well, silly me, I suppose! From the FAQ:

Can Google Suggest see what I'm typing?
Just as E.T.(TM) needs to phone home in order to get a spaceship to pick him up, Google Suggest needs to talk to Google while you type in order to offer suggestions to you. Everything you type, though, is protected by Google's privacy policy.

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

Perhaps, but unlikely. here's why: As you type, they give you a predetermined list, which continues to contract as you type. This can be done via Javascript.

All they have to do is index popular searches, and then run the less popular searches via their servers. The indexed popular searches would be basically dumped to your browser for your browser to handle.

In fact, from what I've seen using the JS Debugger, this is exactly what it does (note: try following the sendRPCDone function in ac.js)

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[Deag]

It does go back to the server, load the page and kill your internet - it will no longer work.

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[Wiseleo]

In the IE version, here is the function (for those curious how it all works, download www.google.com/ac.js)

function jb(){var A=null;
try{A=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP")}catch(e){try{A=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")}catch(oc){A=nul l}}if(!A&&typeof XMLHttpRequest!="undefined"){A=new XMLHttpRequest()}return A}

This function is obviously copyright google, inc., but being presented here for educational purposes only.

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[recursiv]

It's nuts then.

If you're into shit that's nuts, I suggest you read the javascript that runs this mother. I'm about 2 hours in, and this bitch is wild! But I still have a long way to go.

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[zoips]

It'd probably help if you deobfuscated it. It's really not all that complex, it just looks like hell to save on bandwidth (and to make the average looky-loo just quit).

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[recursiv]

Right. It took me over an hour to satisfactorily do that though.

Re:URL is same, with ?complete=1?

[samrolken]

This is the same mechanism by which the Gmail application receives its data. It seems like Google has become a big fan of this XMLHTTP object and its Mozilla cousin. It's a great way to give web applications access to live data without requiring a page refresh.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Code inspection

[Anonymous Coward]

here's the critical code for making this work

function jb(){
var A=null;
try{
A=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP")
}catch(e){
try{
A=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
}catch(oc){
A=null
}
}
if(!A&&typeof XMLHttpRequest!="undefined"){
A=new XMLHttpRequest()
}
return A
}

the xml request is then sent from an iframe i believe: http://www.google.com/ac.js and the response shown in a floating div.

A great addition

[phaln]

Saved me a ton of time from the get-go. After all, it's a hell of a lot more efficient to find porn!

How to...

[Anonymous Coward]

H: hotmail
Ho: hotmail
How: Howard Stern
How t: how to tie a tie
how to: how to tie a tie
how to e: how to eat a girl out

Dirty minded google.

*clap* *clap*

[GillBates0]

Good job.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

This needs work

[hkb]

I read this Slashdot article and write a report at the same time and just want to verify I spelled 'heterogeneous' correctly. So I type it into this new thing and voila! suggestions such as the following pop up:

'hetero handjobs'
'hetero handjob fanclubs'

Typing a word starting with 'dic' or 'glory' provide similar experiences.

Needs work.

It works....

[Anonymous Coward]

I wrote such an application back in 1996 when OpenText was the main web search engine. User testing was very positive, but back then it couldn't be deployed since (a) java was death slow (b) javascript was not up to par (c) establishing repeated connections to request the next completion set took forever.

It is quite impressive to see that eight years later all the pieces are there to make it work and it is very fast. I'm impressed!

more fun

[Anonymous Coward]

Another cool thing you can do is see find out if people actually search for you. Just type your name and see if you show up. I found that I do, but that, for example, grandma does not.

For even more fun, try entering your name (or people you know) and then the word sucks. If it shows up, you know that the person has a decent number of people who doesn't like him/her.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

How does it work

[hey]

I wonder how it works.
Of course, it looks up the string as you enter a letter but beyond that I wonder.
Javascript with search back end?

Interesting Political Uses

[ravenspear]

This was mentioned in another story last night but I thought it was funny.

If you go to the page and type "George Bush is a" you get some interesting suggestions. ;)

Re:Interesting Political Uses

[Skeezix]

Also works for "Kerry is a" and "michael moore is a"

Re:Interesting Political Uses

[suhit]

And "Bill Gates is..."

Re:Interesting Political Uses

[complete loony]

"litig" > "ious bastards" 4,310 results...

How do I get

[ZeroExistenZ]

...
how do i get a passport
how do i get gmail
how do i get gmail account
how do i get there
how do i get l aid

Alot of slashdotters have been trying this out it seems ^_-

Re:How do I get

[tirnacopu]

Naah, if they were slashdot users the search hints would more likely be:
"how do i get a"
blo..
blog..
blow job..
blond jokes..

Re:How do I get

[b00stA]

Try "I need to g" (:

Nice idea, bad implementation

[oexeo]

Nice idea, bad implementation.

The current implementation is annoying, and overzealous as far as I'm concerned. For instance the query "what" opens a endless drop down of suggestions, then fills in the most likely match, which almost always fails in to even approach a decent guess of the query I had in mind.

The only achievement in this case is to distract me, break my concentration from typing, and helpfully steal focus inside the query box.

Frankly, It's quicker for me to type the damn query myself, than search for the closest match in endless drop down of bad suggestions.

Re:Nice idea, bad implementation

[Zorilla]

Well, to be fair, this is a beta. Give them time to iron out all the irregularities that result from very generic words like "how" or "what" as well as the freudian slips that appear to be occuring when you try to type in "hetero" (Someone pointed out that it returned "hetero handjob")

Re:Nice idea, bad implementation

[Anonymous Coward]

> Well, to be fair, this is a beta.

True, but that excuse only works initially, if it still has problems in a year, the Beta excuse is null and void as far as I'm concerned. Google is "the boy who cried wolf," when it comes to Beta releases.

Re:Nice idea, bad implementation

[Anonymous Coward]

"Tony Hawkza mother$&%*er Vulcan liar"

Dude, "fucking liar," not "Vulcan liar."

Re:Nice idea, bad implementation

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome back! I ought to host a short clip of the subtitle saying "Vulcan" - that is, if, your following me around doesn't outlive my sig change cycle.

It was due for a change weeks ago, but you're just too easy to entertain.

Re:Nice idea, bad implementation

[Psycho77]

This is actually why the beta was made. If you know what you are going to type, then you DONT need suggestion. You dont have to go on google suggest. If you dont know exactly what to search and not sure how to find it. You go there and see what google can suggest you. Its to give you ideas.

Re:Nice idea, bad implementation

[Anonymous Coward]

My initial thoughts were that it was distracting and useless too, but then I looked further. There are some terrific possibilities here for long or complex search terms, particularly for words that are very difficult to spell such as chemical names.

For example tributylphosphene or trichloroethane (and these are easy chemical names). One problem for companies is that employees often can't find the safety data for the chemicals they work with because they can't spell the chemical exactly right. Traditional database searches are very bad at finding mispelled search terms(!) while this technique offers suggestions on even difficult-to-spell terms. There is great potential here, particularly if the technique can be applied in a specialized manner using smaller, dedicated databases (rather than the entire Google world).

Re:Nice idea, bad implementation

[ahab_2001]

This is spot on. Typing a search term is *not* like typing a long URL, where a user benefits from autocomplete of terms they've typed in previously. In this case, the long list of search terms that pops down is a huge distraction and a step away from Google's famously uncluttered interface. Ask yourself: Given the length of the list that drops down, what are the odds that *any* of the terms offered will actually be the one you want to use? Pretty bloody low in most cases, I would guess. Hope they don't add this to the main search page -- *not* useful.

Google Suggest : Frequently Asked Questions

[echocharlie]

Google Suggest FAQ

1. What is Google Suggest?
As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time. This is similar to Google's "Did you mean?" feature that offers alternative spellings for your query after you search, except that it works in real time. For example, if you type "bass," Google Suggest might offer a list of refinements that include "bass fishing" or "bass guitar." Similarly, if you type in only part of a word, like "progr," Google Suggest might offer you refinements like "programming," "programming languages," "progesterone," or "progressive." You can choose one by scrolling up or down the list with the arrow keys or mouse.

2. That's pretty cool. How does it do that?
Our algorithms use a wide range of information to predict the queries users are most likely to want to see. For example, Google Suggest uses data about the overall popularity of various searches to help rank the refinements it offers. An example of this type of popularity information can be found in the Google Zeitgeist. Google Suggest does not base its suggestions on your personal search history.

3. Google works well as is. Why should I use Google Suggest?
By suggesting more refined searches up front, Google Suggest can make your searches more convenient and efficient by keeping you from having to reformulate your query. Google Suggest might offer suggestions that you will find novel or intriguing.

4. How do I get back to normal Google?
You can go directly to http://www.google.com, or type http://www.google.com into your browser's address field; either way, you'll be back using ordinary Google search without Google Suggest. If Google Suggest comes on whenever you open a new browser window, it may be set as your home or start page. To set your start page back to http://www.google.com (or anything else) use your web browser's Options menu. In Internet Explorer, you can do this by first selecting Tools, then Internet Options. On the Internet Options menu, look for the Home Page section, find the Address: text box, and enter http://www.google.com. Then select OK. In FireFox, this menu is found under Tools, then Options. In Mozilla, it is found under Edit, then Preferences. In Opera, it is found under Edit, then Options.

5. Can I make Google Suggest my default search tool?
You can set Google Suggest as your home page in your web browser's options, as described above.

6. How about a few examples of when it works best?
Here are a few cases where we've found Google Suggest to be useful. As you find your own, please send them our way; knowing what our users find most useful is our most effective tool for improving our products. You type: Google Suggest might offer: "bass" "bass guitar" "bass fishing" "prog" "programming" "programming languages" "progesterone" "progressive" "duke" "duke university" "dukes of hazzard" "duke nukem" "duke ellington" "duke power"

7. When will you support other languages?
We're not sure yet. But we're always interested in expanding our products into more languages, and hope to be able to offer you such services soon!

8. Here's my comment about Google Suggest. Ready to write this down?
We love feedback. Please send your Google Suggest comments, criticisms and suggestions to us at labs+suggest@google.com -- we always read every email our users send us.

9. I don't want anyone to know I'm into lemur racing. Is my information private?
Yes, your information is private. Google Suggest does not base its suggestions on your personal searches, although it does use information about the relative popularity of common searches to rank its suggestions. Your Google Suggest searches, like all the information you send to Google, are covered under Google's privacy policy.

10. Can Google Suggest see what I'm typing?
Just as E.T.(TM) needs to phone home in order to get a spaceship to

Let try with...

[AlexeiMachine]

Slashdot.

slashdot_
__________________________
Frist suggestion!
Linux rules
Windows sucks
News from soviet Russia
Profits in 4 easy steps
Welcoming new overlords
New pr0n

Looks pretty accurate to me!

f is for fuck

[Anonymous Coward]

When I type f-u-c it suggests "Fuchs" (one-time KPD member Klaus Fuchs?). L-e-s-b gives me lesb and lesbiens which both seem to be abbreviations for lesbians, the latter in a non-English language.

This reminds me of when I used to have access to search engine data. I was alarmed how high the search for "beastiality" was. I could understand wanting to see pictures of it once for the hell of it, but for it to be so popular there some people must have liked looking at it all the time. Perhaps more disturbing is the misspelling (beastilaity) was higher on the search list than its correct spelling ("bestiality"

The First "F" In Google Suggest ...

[walrusx]

... Firefox! w00t

LOL

[Anonymous Coward]

Typing Tara Reid gives you "tara reid breast" and "tara reid wardrobe malfunction" as suggestions ... This is the new KILLER feature =)

Wonder if it uses

[RaisinBread]

I wonder if it uses XMLHttpRequest.

I've seen blogs with this sort of live-search functionality. It's a really great way to quicken access, and its reasonably cross-platform/browser.

I'd try to figure it out, but

IreallydontlikethewaythatthemarkuponGoogle'spagesr eads.

repeats of "a"

[Anonymous Coward]

This is great:

aa 48,200,000
aaa 16,600,000
aaaa 2,850,000
aaaaa 571,000
aaaaaaaaaaaaaa 30,800
aaaaaaaaa... and it keeps going!

Hard to get this past the slashdot lameness filter. Ugh.

Konqueror CVS version

[Domino]

It does NOT crash the latest CVS version of Konqueror. I just tested it, and it is very fast and stable. This means that KDE 3.4 will most likely make this feature available to all KDE users.

Re:Konqueror CVS version

[PoprocksCk]

It doesn't crash my Konqueror either. I'm not using CVS though, I'm using 3.3.2, the current stable!

Cows?

[shrapnull]

I typed in "cow" and it recommended "cows with guns".

It's like it can read your mind or something!

Re:let's get all the obligatory jokes out there

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering there was over 100 comments before you made them, and noone made them, and usually there's only like 250 comments, it was looking good that noone would make stupid jokes. you are part of the problem dude, stop it.

Re:What Google needs is Lexis-Nexis and Journal ta

[brokenwndw]

You mean like scholar.google.com? Or something more where you could pay to get the full text? I definitely wish I could click on Google Scholar's results and get the full text right there with a uniform interface and without having to log in or pay other people.

Censorship

[nosleep_tolkachi]

Is it no surprise that Google does not help me in finding the more explicative and vulgur sites? Somewhere within me I'm glad for this, but where the kill switch for this blatant ignorance for the will of the people who can't spell "whores".

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

XML HTTP request

[AC-x]

After looking at their rather obsfucated javascript code it seems that they (as I suspected) use XML HTTP Request

Google seem to use this alot (it's what makes their gmail interface so fast) but I haven't seen used much in other web applications which is a strange because it makes server interaction a lot faster.

Re:XML HTTP request

[hanson_mark]

It also appears they will use an IFRAME on some browsers rather than the XMLHTTPRequest object. If you look in their JavaScript code at the 'ac' function it does the following

var M=document.createElement("IFRAME");M.completeDiv=b ;M.name="completionFrame";M.id="completionFrame";M .src=sa;s.appendChild(M);document.body.appendChild (s);

Notice that it creates an IFRAME and then sets the 'src', and later on adds it to the main document. This will cause the IFRAME to request the page pointed to by 'src'.

Their Code

[grungefade]

In their HTML code on the input field, it says "input autocomplete="off"

Their JavaScript source...

[(eternal_software)]

Here's the JavaScipt they are using to do the client-server communications:

http://www.google.com/ac.js

Re:Their JavaScript source...

[petdog]

the code in an human readable way

Nothing Special

[Anonymous Coward]

All it is is a LIKE% query on the string you are typing, return the next 10 results in the index. Add a count of how many results for spice.

Big friggin deal. I can't wait till they try this live. The BETA server is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW right now because of just slashdot hitting it. Could you imagine the rest of the world?

Too funny...

[mtrupe]

Type in goatse...
It guessed it! Very funny.... :-)

Re:Too funny...

[Dwedit]

Think about it... Some little kid whose favorite animal is a goat will be traumatized for life.

Re:Too funny...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is funny, but a good point too. Some kid types in Goat for a school report, gets the Goatse guy. Oh my. Some mother freaks out, sues google, and sets a nasty precedent for search engines. http://fromthemorning.blogspot.com/

Re:What Google needs is Lexis-Nexis and Journal ta

[djmurdoch]

It sounds as though you should know about scholar.google.com. It does full text indexing. You need to arrange your own access to the content for now, but it seems like an obvious money maker for Google to do it for you. It's beta, send them a suggestion.

Re:The ABCs of Google Complete - The 123s

[highway40]

0 is for 02
1 is for 1
2 is for 2004 Election
3 is for 3m
4 is for 411
5 is for 50 cent
6 is for 60 minutes
7 is for 7th heaven
8 is for 89.com
9 is for 911

Advertising potential?

[gavint]

Looks nice, but what happens when you type "the"?

"the incredibles"

Is anyone else seeing the advertising possibilities?

Re:Advertising potential?

[been42]

Good point. I typed in "icy h" and got "icy hot stuntaz" at the top of the list. Damn rappers, using their drug money to advertise their CDs...

Seriously, though, if they're thinking about that maybe they could have "sponsored" matches show up in another color or something.

Re:Advertising potential?

[mrshoe]

Google never has any sponosored links in their search results and never will. That's what the ads on the right are for. The same rule applies to the suggestions here. They are sorted by how common those search phrases are queried.

Re:Advertising potential?

[krogoth]

No.

I'm seeing a world where people can do something cool (or anything, really) without being called evil capitalist pigs.

I'm also seeing a world where I don't read slashdot because of comments like this; it doesn't take much imagination, since I live in it.

Implementation details

[JavaRob]

The source for the page is quite simple; most of the work happens in a condensed JavaScript library. Not easy reading (note the word "condensed" above, meaning function and variable names are 1 or 2 chars, and all extra whitespace was removed...), but it's actually pretty straightforward.

It disables your browser's autocomplete on that textfield (for obvious reasons). Then it basically just defines a hidden div for that auto-complete dropdown (variations on this depending on browser... frickin' incompatibilities).

Each time you type a character, it populates that div body with the results of a quick, tiny query back to Google. It's NOT running the search for you; it's hitting (I assume) a simple, probably totally in-memory list of the most popular searches and number of results. That's how it can be so quick a response -- the lookup on their end is super-minimal, and the data to be transferred is probably less than 1k each time.

Cool. Nice concept, nice execution. And one of those nice "only obvious in hindsight" additions.

Even cooler -- it looks like (from the js file) they are supporting multiple languages here, not just English. Anyone using want to test this out for me? I think even Chinese is supported (or maybe that's the one that isn't.. I don't want to take the time to parse this properly).

Re:Implementation details

[k96822]

Do you think the person who came up with this at Google will get a raise? This is so cool, I feel like sending him/her a bit of cash myself!

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

It works in hebrew.

Shabbat Shalom!

Re:Implementation details

[K-Man]

Here's the url it uses to populate the drop-down:

http://www.google.com/complete/search?hl=en&js=tru e&qu=chicken.

You can substitute any string for "chicken", and hl is the language.

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

from the faq

7. When will you support other languages?
We're not sure yet. But we're always interested in expanding our products into more languages, and hope to be able to offer you such services soon!

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

The language field doesn't seem to be used... searching on "der" with de as the language produced the same results as searching with en.

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

It does support the Scandinavian ÆØÅ.

Re:Implementation details

[ryan_fung]

Just tried a few Chinese characters but there's no suggestions given. Looks like Chinese is not supported. (Or at least here with Safari)

Re:Implementation details

[starrsoft]

No it doesn't support other languages... yet. Google Suggest FAQ:

When will you support other languages?
We're not sure yet. But we're always interested in expanding our products into more languages, and hope to be able to offer you such services soon!

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

It does support portuguese.

Re:Implementation details

[space_man51]

Even cooler -- it looks like (from the js file) they are supporting multiple languages here, not just English. Anyone using want to test this out for me? I think even Chinese is supported (or maybe that's the one that isn't.. I don't want to take the time to parse this properly).

It works with Russian text, but a friend of mine tried Korean and it doesn't work. I wonder how they hand the encoding issue? Or do browsers always send information in UTF8? Must be really tricky on their end.

Anyways, kudos to Google for another MS-smashing feature!

This is way cool! I am so setting this as my homepage!

Re:Implementation details

[Chibouki]

Even cooler -- it looks like (from the js file) they are supporting multiple languages here, not just English. Anyone using want to test this out for me? I think even Chinese is supported (or maybe that's the one that isn't.. I don't want to take the time to parse this properly).

So you mean you want multiple languages and and porn? Try Québec érotique...

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

It works in Swedish. Hej hopp Sverige, ÅÄÖ..

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

I can confirm that it supports Arabic.

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

"...probably totally in-memory list..."

It's funny you mention that.

Sorry I don't have a link for this, but a few months ago, I read a really cool article about Google and some of their technology.

There were two statements from the article that just blew me away:

Their total number of machines had recently crossed the 100,000 mark.

Their entire database was in RAM.

And people wonder why it's fast...

Re:Implementation details

[guymal]

Works with Hebrew.
Another amazing job by Google!

Re:Implementation details

[Psychotext]

Not exactly unique in their implementation:

http://www.codeproject.com/jscript/jsactb.asp

Re:Implementation details

[wanchai]

it does support chinese.
Tested on Win IE and Mac Camino

but there're some conflicting between the pharse suggestion function in the chineses input method on the OS level. maybe that's why Google is not officially supporting that at the moment/in the future.

Re:Implementation details

[greggman]

browsers typically send in the encoding they are currently set it. Most browsers will automatically switch to the encoding specified in the page and/or http content header so as long as you set both to the encoding of your choice you'll generally get sent what you need. In their case I suspect that's utf-8

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

It works perfectly with cyrillic letters.

Very good job from google!

Re:Implementation details

[nerd_ngm]

Yes, its a cool thing, I later found that even this site: http://news.surfwax.com/ does almost the same. It is intelligent use of IFRAME and some simple javascript. I've posted a few details of this at my blog: http://narasimhagm.blogspot.com/

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

Works for Russian. However, many of the suggested words are either obscenities or sex related.

Works for Hebrew too. Search for "gold" is much for frequent than search for "f-ing" (they start with the same letter in Hebrew). Hm...

Re:Implementation details

[kbahey]

Yes, works fine in Arabic too: FireFox 1.0 on Windows 2000.

It is not that hard, now that handling non-Latin character sets is well standardized, with ISO-8859 and UTF-8 and such.

Re:Implementation details

[CTPEKO3A]

His name is...

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

From that page:

"After seeing how GMail made its auto-complete, I took the idea and implemented my own version of the auto-complete control."

So, are you saying that once someone has borrowed their ideas, Google shouldn't be allowed to use them again?

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

It Does support Hebrew !

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

The Vietnamese language works!

Jaap

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

Greek is supported BTW

Re:Implementation details

[beetall]

This is a nice way to do the suggested links. Seen it before but never thought about in a big way. Since Google started using it then people will sure catch on to this idea. I have come across this link in sitepoint blog: BitFlux does something similar... http://blog4.bitflux.ch/wiki/LiveSearch

Re:Implementation details

[Anonymous Coward]

This is old hate. JSRS for instance has been around for about 5 years. Checkout http://www.ashleyit.com/rs

galeon

[Janek Kozicki]

works in galeon, my favorite web browser :)

It works just fine with Opera 7.54

[Nitish]

Did you even try? It works perfectly for me. If you have personal information which you want Opera to use for Autocomplete, both show up.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no perfect way to disambiguate with the keyboard, but that's a minor quibble. If it bothers you, temporarily disable Opera's Autocomplete. I find that I can usually manage with the keyboard, but the keyboard+mouse combination is fast on the rare occasions both the terms have a long prefix in common.

Konqueror works fine

[Anonymous Coward]

Works for me in the latest stable Konqueror (kde) 3.3.2

I like it

[LordNimon]

I was going to type in "linux", but as soon as I got to "n", it suggested "lindsay lohan". I said, "why the hell not?" and hit enter. I'm glad I did.

Obfuscated Javascript

[jdludlow]

http://www.google.com/ac.js

The Javascript is ripped to shreds as far as readability goes, but buried in there somewhere is the key to making your own app based on this. If you were so inclined to piggy-back on top of this technology. Not that I'd advocate such things.

// Copyright 2004 and onwards Google Inc.

var w="";var pa=false;var ta="";var da=false;var g="";var G="";var m="";var j=-1;var h=null;var Z=-1;var za=null;var Ca=5;var q="";var Lb="div";var Bb="span";var la=null;var a=null;var b=null;var Xa=null;var mb=null;var X=null;var ha=null;var ra=false;var kc=null;var hc=null;var Ua=new Object();var ca=1;var Aa=1;var Y=false;var na=-1;var Va=(new Date()).getTime();var Q=false;var k=null;var sa=null;var E=null;var B=null;var aa=null;var Ba=false;var Ka=false;var p=60;var ia=null;var ya=null;var W=0;InstallAC=function(frm,fld,sb,pn,rl,hd,sm,ufn) {la=frm;a=fld;Xa=sb;if(!pn)pn="search";ia=pn;var Kb="en|";var Jb="zh-CN|zh-TW|ja|ko|vi|";if(!rl||Kb.indexOf(rl+" |")==-1)rl="en";ha=nb(rl);if(Jb.indexOf(ha+"|")==- 1){X=true;Y=false;Ba=false}else{X=false;if(ha.inde xOf("zh")==0)Y=false;else Y=true;Ba=true}if(!hd)hd=false;ya=hd;if(!sm)sm="qu ery";w=sm;mb=ufn;ac()}
;function Yb(){ra=true;a.blur();setTimeout("sfi();",10);retu rn}
function Fb(){if(document.createEventObject){var y=document.createEventObject();y.ctrlKey=true;y.ke yCode=70;document.fireEvent("onkeydown",y)}}
func tion nc(vb){var y=document.createEventObject();y.ctrlKey=true;y.ke yCode=vb;document.fireEvent("onkeydown",y)}
funct ion gc(event){}
function ic(event){}
function Pb(event){if(!event&&window.event)event=window.eve nt;if(event)na=event.keyCode;if(event&&event.keyCo de==8){if(X&&(a.createTextRange&&(event.srcElement ==a&&(bb(a)==0&&lb(a)==0)))){cc(a);event.cancelBub ble=true;event.returnValue=false;return false}}}
function mc(){}
function Db(){if(w=="url"){Ha()}ba()}
function ba(){if(b){b.style.left=ob(a)+"px";b.style.top=Qb( a)+a.offsetHeight-1+"px";b.style.width=Ja()+"px"}}
function Ja(){if(navigator&&navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase ().indexOf("msie")==-1){return a.offsetWidth-ca*2}else{return a.offsetWidth}}
function ac(){if(jb()){Q=true}else{Q=false}if(pa)E="complet e";else E="/complete/"+ia;sa=E+"?hl="+ha;if(!Q){qa("qu","" ,0,E,null,null)}la.onsubmit=Fa;a.autocomplete="off ";a.onblur=Ob;if(a.createTextRange)a.onkeyup=new Function("return okuh(event); ");else a.onkeyup=okuh;a.onsubmit=Fa;g=a.value;ta=g;b=docu ment.createElement("DIV");b.id="completeDiv";ca=1; Aa=1;b.style.borderRight="black "+ca+"px solid";b.style.borderLeft="black "+ca+"px solid";b.style.borderTop="black "+Aa+"px solid";b.style.borderBottom="black "+Aa+"px solid";b.style.zIndex="1";b.style.paddingRight="0" ;b.style.paddingLeft="0";b.style.paddingTop="0";b. style.paddingBottom="0";ba();b.style.visibility="h idden";b.style.position="absolute";b.style.backgro undColor="white";document.body.appendChild(b);Ma(" ",new Array(),new Array());Gb(b);var s=document.createElement("DIV");s.style.visibility ="hidden";s.style.position="absolute";s.style.left ="-10000";s.style.top="-10000";s.style.width="0";s .style.height="0";var M=document.createElement("IFRAME");M.completeDiv=b ;M.name="completionFrame";M.id="complet

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[nacturation]

Why not grab a legal version from the LiveSearch wiki page, which is given away under the Apache license?

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[rlorenzo]

interesting!.. thanks for the link

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[Voltara]

Google, where every byte counts. I can imagine how sucking out all the whitespace and reducing variable names to one or two characters each must have a huge effect on their bandwidth bill.

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[Fweeky]

You'd imagine they'd gzip content if they really gave a damn about their bandwidth bill, especially for things like static files.

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[Anonymous Coward]

try 10 seconds with tcpdump, enjoy:

wget -qO- 'google.com/complete/search?hl=en&js=true&qu=hello '

--
- Justin

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[petdog]

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=132312&cid=110 54992

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[petdog]

sorry: here :)

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[VirtualAdept]

Having looked through it in a very brief sense, it looks like the page is basically using XML-HTTP based off of the input text box and then feeding the results of that into a div.

The fascinating bits of this is how it degrades. It starts by trying to instantiate MS's own XMLHTTP object (Msxml2.XMLHTTP), then trying to instantiate the com object Microsoft.XMLHTTP. If that fails, it will try to create an instance of XMLHttpRequest, which seems to be an intrinsic object in Firefox. Does anyone know if XmlHttpRequest is standard DOM now?

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[Anonymous Coward]

No, It's Mozilla's version of microsoft's XMLHTTP com object (they say so right in the docs).

Re:Obfuscated Javascript

[Jugalator]

I don't think they obfuscated it to obfuscate it, but to save bandwidth with a minimum of cost in CPU time. Take 1 byte and multiply that with however many visitors per second they're getting ;-)

As long as there aren't any pop up suggestions.

[Duct Tape Pro]

It looks like you're googling on how to write a letter...

Re:What Google needs is Lexis-Nexis and Journal ta

[calibanDNS]

See Google Scholar for a service that might do just that one day. It was previously covered on Slashdot here.

Must be blind...

[gmuslera]

... is the first time i saw the "Discuss" link at the bottom, linked to a google group about suggestions to google labs, and that alone (that signal of deepening the integration between different google features) seemed almost as interesting to me as the main feature.

Another interesting thing is that you can check how many results are for partial words (google tries to search for full words) and that even when you have a lot of results, you could end having no suggestion (probably the db it uses for suggestions are the most issued queries)

Cool, but dangerous to google

[Anonymous Coward]

Much as I love this, I really do, I think Google is screwing themselfs over big time with this if it were to go live. Think about it, who has the most use for up-to-date common searches? Link farmers, google`s biggest problem!

All they have to do is, search for 'a', create links with the sugestions as text, search for 'b'... etc. Voila, a link farm optimized for the favourite searches of all google users. This can be automated to stay up-to-date. Much faster, more extensive and more acurate the googles zeitgeist.

I really hope googlecan make this it work though... its more helptfull the eclipse and zsh completion together ;-). Its also quite revealing of how much my searches are like everybody elses, or rather, arent alike at all.

...and the first match for T is Tara Reid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not as bad,^H^H^H^H^H^H^^^H^H^^^^H^H....nm, yeah...it's just as bad.

konqueror

[decosterthomas]

konqueror doesn't crash for me :) using kde3.3

Slash...

[fishbulb-]

5 letters into 'slashdot' --- here I am reading slash fanfiction. This is just diverting me from my original goal. I - ooh, Kirk & Spock?! brb...

Patented???

[vettemph]

Did they file the standard [Blah Blah Prior Art Blah] -append "On the internet" Patent like everyone else does?

Censored?

[phrenq]

It looks like a search for pretty much any "adult" terms comes up blank after a few letters. Seems like there's a censor word list, because certainly many of these terms would return plenty of results.

It crashes Konqueror

[Skiron]

Yep, does here on KDE 3.3.0 - but GEEZ, what a great way to free up some RAM immediately ready for a Quake2 DM game. Thanks Google!!

I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[Nomihn0]

GoogleSuggest filters lewd words from its autocomplete term pool, it appears. How exactly is "sex" not autocompleted? Not that I condone it, but there are millions who would prefer to query that term with one hand.

Regardless, I think that Google is going to hit a snag with this technology. They seem to have filtered out personal sites, as my name does not appear (although it is indexed by Google). This is fair. It could have been scary, seeing what others searched for in conjuction with your name. However, filtering out "sex", which many juvenilles might search for to increase awareness of STDs or personal development is dangerous. No, it's not filtering it from the search index, but it is restricting access to the 343,000,000 results the word provides. Why not allow any query, but default to safesearch: filtered searching with a cookie-out option. Right now, changing safesearch changes nothing.

I suggest you search for...

[danila]

... "censorship", because that's what you are getting from now on from Google, now that it has become an evil public company.

Interestingly, nowhere in the FAQ or terms of service does Google mention that it censors the words. In a Orwellian style this service suggests only one thing - that a giant unaccountable corporation should determine which search terms are proper and which terms are not.

In a few years, as Google Inc. (or shall I saw Though Police Inc.) continues to refine it technologies, expect more and more censorship from them. Hopefully, this truly global corporation would be able to sinergistically leverage the experience in Internet filtering gained in such bastions of Freedom as China or Iran.

For those who didn't notice, here is the patently obvious evidence that search terms are censored: "pornography" isn't suggested, while "porography" and "poronography" are. "Bestiality" is not suggested, while "bestility" and "zoophilia" are.

Please write Google and tell them that we do not approve attempts at censorship and unwanted filtering... Not that our voices count for anything anymore. At least I can still find the spyware-ridden official KaZaA client and find the nearest office of the Church of Scientology... Keep up the good work, Google.

Re:I suggest you search for...

[Anonymous Coward]

For those who didn't notice, here is the patently obvious evidence that search terms are censored: "pornography" isn't suggested, while "porography" and "poronography" are. "Bestiality" is not suggested, while "bestility" and "zoophilia" are.

Please write Google and tell them that we do not approve attempts at censorship and unwanted filtering...

Oh, cry me a fucking river, Mr. Flamebait. You can still type pornography and then hit the search button and continue on as normal. It just doesn't offer it as a popular search for whatever obscure reason. Or did you not even try it out and you assume that the suggestions are the only search results you get? I suggest you type "glory" into the search box and revel in what the Lord has in store for you!

Re:I suggest you search for...

[danila]

I don't want to search for pornography on google. I just want to know the reason for filtering. I can easily understand that "it's no big deal" or "everyone filters sexual terms", but this is not the reason, this is not the why...

What is the point of filtering the list? What does Google want to accomplish? Think about it. It's much scarier than the simple fact that as of today Google doesn't suggest you search for "pornography", when you type "pornograp". I don't see a valid reason, no valid reason at all and this makes me sad, because by logic it follows that google acts by invalid reasons, which can lead to all sorts of crap in the future (and it likely will).

Re:I suggest you search for...

[Anonymous Coward]

mod p up

What is n?

[MasterVidBoi]

I'll try this myself: What does n represent in this case? The number of pages in google's database, the number of words or phrases in their database? The length of the search string?

I would really like to know where you came across this. Can point us to a discription of the algorithm?

Re:What is n?

[cbreeze34]

n represents the most often executed statement in the entire algorithm, or comparing a character to another character...which is why this algorithm is O(n^2). n represents BOTH the length of the word AND the number of words in the database...hence the innermost statement will execute n^2 times, worst case.

however this performance can be improved to O(log^2 n) if a binary search or some other more intelligent search algorithm is implemented (course then the database has to be sorted).

Re:What is n?

[cbreeze34]

Correction, it can be improved to O(n log n) with a binary search.

Re:What is n?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, ok, clearly you don't know what you're talking about.

Re:What is n?

[LnxAddct]

A binary search is O(lg(n)).
Regards,
Steve

Zombies...

[bigwavejas]

Granted, it's cool.. very cool, but the fact it's already censoring sites is reason enough for me not to use it. Sure, right now it's harmless censorship, but give it a few months of use and I'm sure someone like the FCC and Michael Powell will drop the hammer Just like he did on Howard Stern. Control the whole Wal-Mart populace and just churn out more zombies, rather than creative/ free thinkers.

Re:Is it any coincidence. No.

[zijus]

By default...

SafeSearch Filtering
Google's SafeSearch blocks web pages containing explicit sexual content from appearing in search results.

* Use strict filtering (Filter both explicit text and explicit images)
* Use moderate filtering (Filter explicit images only - default behavior)
* Do not filter my search results.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

P is for Paris Hilton, T is for Tara Reid

[s88]

That is hilarious... those are the only people that top the list.

Punk ass computers

[Control-Z]

Back in my day computers didn't do anything until we (dammit there's an IM) told them to! Now they won't shut up while I'm trying to (dammit there goes another e-mail) type. Next thing you know (new updates available, SHUT UP!) computers won't even need us, they can just surf the net by themselves and run our lives 24/7. ;)

more pointless 'innovation'

[Lawrence_Bird]

is it really necessary? Especially when they give you the 'did you mean' as a choice after returning your results? Have they/you considered that some useful pages will be left out simply because they contain spelling or grammar errors? [Spelling police stay away - even newspapers make mistakes and typos]

Perhaps its just my personal preference, but I doubt I am alone in saying that I would rather see less than more from Google - the change to the deja (groups) service a good case and point. In fact, it probably applies to most software coming out these days. Companies continue to want to fuck with the interface and add bells and whistles of debatable value and call it innovation instead of actually coming out with something completely new and useful. YMMV.

'w' and 'o'

[Anonymous Coward]

'wo' brings up 'world of warcraft'.

That please me in a 'my soul is addicted to that game' sort of way.

Spreading themselves too thin...

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Google doomed by popularity?

Firefox

[gabbarbhai]

Next step: Stick this into the firefox search bar thingie.. Wish I knew enough about mozilla stuff; can javascript be stuffed into the search bar?

AOL does this

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd just like to point out that the AOL client has done this for a while now. It'll be on the AOL Search web product in January.

Of course, if it had been our product featured on Slashdot instead of Google's, everyone would be talking about how lame it is. That's okay, we can take it. ;)

Ordering of suggestions

[roxtar]

I wonder on what basis do they order the suggestions as the number of total results for the query is not the criterion.

Re:Ordering of suggestions

[b00stA]

It seems quite obvious that it's sorting the results by the popularity of the key words.

Popular opinion tool

[wileynet]

I'm having fun using it as a popular opinion tool. For instance, type in "george w. bush is a" and see what drops down. It would appear he is fairly well liked despite the bad press.
Try "john kerry is a". Not as flattering.
How about "the war in iraq is".
Or "slashdot is".

Konqeuror Crash

[unixmaster]

It shouldn't crash in KDE 3.3.2 or KDE 3.4 alpha1 as khtml is much more mature now. Just FYI.

Re:Konqeuror Crash

[wintermind]

I checked with Konqueror 3.3.2 and unixmaster is correct, Konqueror did not crash.

Re:Konqeuror Crash

[Anonymous Coward]

Okey, it didn't crash. But did it work? Probably not.

Re:Konqeuror Crash

[unixmaster]

Yeah it works fine.

but then

[WormholeFiend]

how am I supposed to find cheap labtops?

Re:What Google needs is Lexis-Nexis and Journal ta

[Gkeeper80]

The (current) problem with Google Scholoar is that it can't identify the useful citation information about an article. It's great for finding articles in online collections, but because there is still a charge for full text you need some intermidiate organization to sell it to you. Lots of times your local library (esp at universities) already has access, but you'll need a way of telling your library which article you want. That's usually done with citation information such as issn, volume, issue, and page number but Google Scholar isn't able to pull that out of any old random document (at least not yet). If you want that capability now, there are lots of companies that offer it. CSA.com, Ebsco Host, First Search, and many more. Chances are your library already subscribes to these services and many universities will let you get access as long as you're on the school's network (or VPNed in). You search, find the articles you want, and there are usualy a few options for getting the actual text, some are digital full-text, others will link to your library's catalog system. It helps to know which journals have lots of digital full-text (eg. APA PsycArticles database publishes their digital articles with full-text, APA PsycInfo doesn't). It's certainly not perfect, and there is a bit more skill involved in seraching scholarly databases then google's search, but until authors start publishing more of their content digitally and in a uniform format it's really the best option we have

Firefox Search Plugin

[Trebonius]

Now if only someone would make a firefox search plugin that would support this. How cool would that be? The answer: very cool.

I doubt that the Mycroft search plugin format would be capable of implementing this, though there might be some sort of javascript hack possibility. It would probably require a full-scale plugin.

Anybody with plugin-foo think they could pull this off?

It crashes Konqueror

[Anonymous Coward]

Good.

Yippee! A new source of amusement!

[slcdb]

I got a real kick out of some of the suggestions.

my cat: ... hates you ... breath smells like cat food ... hates me ... is an alien

my girlfried:
(No suggestions, obviously Google is run by a pack of lonely nerds).

my boyfriend: ... is gay ... sucks ... cheated on me ... hates me ... dumped me
(Okay, make that an apparently gay pack of lonely nerds).

darth vader is: ... gay
(A delusional pack of gay nerds?)

Oh, the fun I'll have with this new toy when I'm bored at work.

Re:Yippee! A new source of amusement!

[Anonymous Coward]

>my girlfried:
> (No suggestions, obviously Google is run >by a pack of lonely nerds).

Or maybe other Google users know how to spell (or misspell words differently than you do). If you look for my girlfriend you get:
- my girlfriend pics
- my girlfriend lyrics
- my girlfriend is pregnant
etc.

Re:Yippee! A new source of amusement!

[Redshift]

This really ....

sucks (2,010,000)
works (19,000,000)

Proof that it's an upbeat world out there!

Re:Yippee! A new source of amusement!

[mldqj]

my girlfried:
(No suggestions, obviously Google is run by a pack of lonely nerds).

No, it's just because you misspelled girlfriend.

Re:Yippee! A new source of amusement!

[whuru]

i must wonder and ask what you are mumblin on about sir.

Re:Yippee! A new source of amusement!

[Anonymous Coward]

Other good ones:

my dog has: ...no nose
my dog ate m: ...arijuana
my boss is: ...a wanker ...a jewish carpenter
my husband: ...is gay (there we go again) ...spanks me
my wife is: ...a gangster
my wife needs: ...a spanking

And my personal favorite:
my husband has:
...a big dick (441 results)
...a small dick (371,000 results)
...add (2,190,000 results)
...no friends (6 results)

Clearly most wives want their husbands to have bigger dicks (as that is what they search for more often), but given the number of results, we can see which is actually true.

Re:Yippee! A new source of amusement!

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually:

my girlfriend is:

1. pregnant
   
2. fat
   
3. crazy
   
4. hot
   
5. getting fat
   
6. cheating on me
   
7. inflatable
   
8. depressed
   
9. cheating
   
10. a virgin

Come on slashdot, only at number 7?

(Ignore me... damn lameness filter)
Stupid lameness filter doesn't think I've got enough characters per line. So I'll just keep writing something here to make it all good.

Google suggested me ...

[Tribbin]

... not to go out tonight because tomorrow I would regret it.

How do they do that?!

Fascinating thing, the internet.

Possible recipe for breach of privacy?

[Czech Dude]

I wonder if the code behind this great Google's feature could be abused for additional breach of privacy... If Google is able to open an XML stream and feed any JavaScript event back to the server without user's knowledge or at least her approval, what stops (advertising) company from collecting users' behavior on web sites, like scrolling, copying text, etc.?

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[mr_jrt]

Indeed. Seems "falun gong" is in the results. Wonder how that'll pan out.

Personally, I think the removal of words like "sex" and "porn" are more down to keeping the list short. There no way it could disply every possible word given 2 letters....though given they're pretty much given as the most common searches it seems likely theres a touch of meddling in the distribution of the displayed results.

Cool! I want...

[hobbespatch]

Type in I want... 2nd suggestion is I want to die.

Thanks /.

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[slimak]

but you already can - 's', 'e', 'x' are all entered with the left hand. just use the mouse to submit and you are free with your right for "anything you can think of"

No sex

[petteri_666]

Try searching with sex, porn etc. no results. It is in some safety mode or what?

Integrate with a Dasher-like interface?

[PenguiN42]

Why am I picturing something like dasher with live search results integrated into its database? hmmmmm...

Mod Parent Up

[richyoung]

That's informative stuff. Is it possible (not knowing Moz real well) that it's an effect isolated to a certain operating system, or some other quirk?

Nothing

[GoldenCupChamp]

Typed in a blank space and got exactly what I asked for.

Did you mean porrrno?

[dj1471]

Um no actually I didn't! Has anybody else noticed that it doesn't know naughty words, but it DOES know a mis-spelling of every naughty word???

Try it.

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[iabervon]

Millions of people do type "sex" with one hand. Even people with both hands on the keyboard or typing with only their index fingers tends to use the same hand for 'e', 's', and 'x'.

Re:The ABCs of Google NOW Complete 0!

[Zemplar]

You forgot 50% of all binary code!
0 is for 02

Ah...

[nacturation]

Okay, never mind my response. I took the 'what is n' in O(n) to be similar to 'what is 1' in O(1). Perhaps I didn't understand how the question was worded. Maybe "What determines the size of the result set and how does the algorithm work?" might have been a better way to ask it. Of course, that I don't know either.

Some kind of statistical thing maybe?

[Wizard of OS]

They definately are not. Try completing "asdfjklasdfjklasdfjklasdfjkl". It shows that there should be 4100 hits, but when you actually search for it, it returns none.

My guess is that it does some statistical magic based top-indexed search terms, because searching for only 'asdfjkl' does give around 4700 hits.

Re:What Google needs is Lexis-Nexis and Journal ta

[prell]

You can find many documents with Google Scholar. It will also search libraries.

"similar to Google's 'Did you mean?'" = WRONG

[aallmighty]

This feature does not work like google's "Did you mean" feature. I think it is much less useful. It only suggests based on the spelling you have typed in, so it is essentially just an autocomplete feature that includes what everyone else has typed in. If you type in a word and spell it wrong, it will not have any suggestions for you, except to visit web sites that have also spelled the word wrong. If google could have it work the way the "did you mean?" feature does it would be much more useful. I have found that it is right about what I meant 90% of the time.

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[recursiv]

I agree with your conclusion, but I just had to stop and point out that you don't condone one-handed sex searching. Hilarious!

Careful though, some pervs our there might think you were talking about wanking, jagging, or otherwise masturbating. (Horrors!) They might not get your true message about amputees.

I keed, I keed. I was just very amused with puritanical way you approached the subject, and that you went the extra step not to condone it.

...and here are the numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

1 is for 1
2 is for 2004 election
3 is for 3m
4 is for 411
5 is for 50 cent
6 is for 60 minutes
7 is for 7th heaven
8 is for 89.com
9 is for 911 (you need to google this?)
10 is for 10 commandments

I find it funny

[budhaboy]

that it doesn't suggest alternatives for obscenities.

Javascript autocomplete

[krashish]

I've been using something similar I've found a while ago here:
http://www.mattkruse.com/javascript/autocomplete/

Try...

[dtrent]

...typing in "google suggests"

google is evil, google is cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Type "google is " and see how people feel about Google.

Doesn't fix spelling errors

[Anonymovs Coward]

It's autocomplete, but not like the "did you mean" feature. If you type "slshdot" or "wahington" it shows suggestions with a few hundred or few thousand hits each but no corrections.

Google front page

[Absolut Fizznix]

I think they should make the front page look cleaner like it used to.

Old Google I miss the tabs.

Or how about this one? Really Old Google j/k

It Knows Where You Live

[hondo77]

Have you folks noticed that it takes into account where you are? For instance, I started typing in "chili john's", a chili place nearby. Once I got to the "j" it suggested "chili johns" even though there are more popular searches for "chili j". Try it with places nearby you. It's too cool!

The Alphabet - By Google

[ar1550]

Coming soon to the children's section of a quality bookseller near you! (Animated, 26 pages)
A is for Amazon
B is for Best Buy
C is for CNN
D is for dictionary
E is for eBay
F is for Firefox
G is for games
H is for Hotmail
I is for IKEA
J is for jokes
K is for kazaa
L is for lyrics
M is for Mapquest
N is for news
O is for online dictionary
P is for Paris Hilton
Q is for quotes
R is for recipes
S is for Spybot
T is for Tara Reid
U is for UPS
V is for Verizon
W is for weather
X is for Xbox
Y is for Yahoo
Z is for zip codes

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[Anonymous Coward]

That Chinese Government run search engine that was talked about the other day seemed to turn up objective results for Falun Gong, so I doubt google is going to be worse.

type. . .

[oyenstikker]

"microsoft is "
"linux is "

and the kicker:
"slashdot is "

"F"

[sharkey]

Google: "OAD"

game

[oyenstikker]

I've got a great game for a party (after a few drinks).

Propose terms, and award points to whoever correctly guesses the number of characters you must enter before suggest.google picks it up.

That's not what I typed!

[Anonymous Coward]

The real question is: why doesn't it maintain capitalization?

This has been done before and source is available

[nacs]

Some bloggers did this months ago and released the source (and it's not obfuscated like Google's code). This is definitely not new tech.

See here for more info:
http://blog4.bitflux.ch/wiki/LiveSearch

See a demo here (the quick search in the right hand menu searches the guy's blog in real time):
http://maniacalrage.net/archives/

And Apple has an overview/guide of the XMLHTTP methods which is used for these kind of applications here:
http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/xml httpreq.html

There's about 3 billion women in the world...

[Anonymous Coward]

...so get to it, bucko.

george bush is..

[yek401]

Type "george bush is" into the search field.

I think you'll enjoy the results:

george bush issues
george bush is an idiot
george bush is stupid
george bush is the antichrist
george bush is evil
george bush is gay
george bush is a moron
george bush is my homeboy
george bush is the anti christ
george bush is a monkey

"jesus is" and "google is" are pretty funny too.

--Jordan

from their ads

[billybob]

When you see google ads on other web pages it always says "ads by goooooooooooogle" with however many O's... I'm guessing it woul dbe 16 since that's the one that has so many results.

republicans vs democrats

[yek401]

"democrats are " losers, stupid, evil, smarter, idiots, sore losers, dumb, dead, socalists, communists.

"republicans are " evil, stupid, idiots, racist, dumb nazis, like condoms, better, smarter than democracts, smarter

Wow, republicans are like condoms. Who knew?

--Jordan

I don't care for it...

[jacobcaz]

I know it's in vogue to praise everything that Google puts out ("all hail the mighty Google, bringer of light") but this isn't something that I find useful.

Typically if I'm at Google's main page I have a pretty good idea what I want to...er...google.

If this could end up incorporated into their search results somehow I think it might work a lot better. Show a list of relevant keywords and the number of results those keywords would return. I could really use something like that.

If I search for "foozeball" it would be nice to know that in addition to those results the keyword "foozeball table" has another 835 results (and it might be interesting to know that "foozeball tables" only has 402 results).

I just don't like the idea of this being the defacto search method on the main page (should they every move it into production).

Maybe upgrade

[Stumbles]

Dunno what the authors problem is but works fine for me and konqueror (3.3.2).

In a later report.....

[ARRRLovin]

...Google suggestion is renamed to "Skynet" by the company that acquired Google, Cyberdyne systems. Skynet is said to be fully operational. Soon it will become "aware".

MOD PARENT INFORMATIVE

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry I don't have mod points right now.

Interesting

[jacobcaz]

Has anyone else notice that typing in "google suggest" or "suggest google" doesn't actually return any results on the first page to the Google Suggest Beta page?

It links to several news stories about the service, but not the service itself that I could see.

I've got a suggestion

[prisoner]

for those dicks: get rid of the groups beta.

Re:let's get all the obligatory jokes out there

[dolem98]

I was obviously not promoting those jokes. I guess you (and the mods) didn't get it.

google is wack

[v3xt0r]

yea I said it!

Safesearch not perfect yet

[philgross]

Try "sucking". Those suggestions are not suitable for kids...

the javascript...

[petdog]

...translated in an human readable way is here: http://www.romanzieri.com/google_suggest.js check it out!

Re:the javascript...

[Jugalator]

Nice work with a code beautifier, but you still need the variable and function names unless you want to spend a whole lot of time figuring out how everything is related.

Mature Words.

[PHanT0]

Typing 'sex' ends-up with no results... the story of my life.

Odd Observations

[Anonymous Coward]

"Homose" brings up "homoseksual" but will never suggest the "x" or anything nearing "homosexual."

Penis
Vagina
Sex

Nothing remotely sexual appears, regardless if it is health related. Boo.

As another oddity.. keep typing "a" (or any single letter) and noting how many results each has.
Why is it that "aaaaaaaaaaaa" gets 110,000 and "aaaaaaaaaaaaa" only gets 35,000?

ant-bushism

[Skizamaskidz]

sure enough, tyep in "I hate" into the field and the first suggestion is "I hate bush"

gotta love google

Try this:

[AEton]

Type in g. Then type o. Then type a. Then type t. Aiyeee! I just wanted goat feeding instructions!

Bandwidth issues...

[Spy der Mann]

I wonder what will use more bandwidth. TONS of instant queries to "suggest", or a simple query search result.

I think they should have considered it A LOT, concluding that the instant queries would save many search results listings.

I wonder if they have a bandwidth usage saving chart, or something?

Why they probably block searches containing "sex"

[5n3ak3rp1mp]

and "porn" and "xxx" (etc.)

Since the information is retrieved via an XMLHTTP request, it will go right through corporate http url /content scanners and I'm sure that after a few attempts, some friendly neighborhood net admins (or perhaps HR) will come breathing down your neck. =)

Re:Why they probably block searches containing "se

[5n3ak3rp1mp]

I just posted that from work. I'm such an idiot

Changing behavior

[ghamerly]

To see how accurate the suggestion is for the number of hits, I typed in "principal component analysis", and the suggestion box said that should yield 3 hits. When you actually do the search, it yields over 3 million hits.

I tried the same thing again, 5 minutes later, and suddenly Google suggest did not even know anything about "principal component analysis". It would not auto-complete the phrase (it did earlier), and would not predict the number of hits.

I guess they are changing things on the fly.

MSN

[yankeessuck]

Does this mean Clippy pop up with suggestions when MSN copies this?

Agorithem includes popularity

[stevenprentice]

This is interesting because the suggestions are the most popular searches that match the letters you have typed. Type one letter, like 'C'. You'll see the cnn is the top match. 'D': dictionary, dell, ...dogs, drudge report.

This certainly would make the algorithm more efficient, since google could just take the top 1 million searches or so and make suggestions from that.

It also makes it easy to see what the most popular searches are.

Re:Agorithem includes popularity

[ianmac47]

So does this mean people are going to start "Suggestion" Optimization, or will google just start selling suggestions?

Or more importantly, as a blogger or someone trying to optimize their site, would the inclusion of the first words that are suggested make for a more likely result? Say I want people putting D to come to me, would including dictionary, dell, dogs, drudge report on a site page move that up on the likelihood of result pages?

The mighty future?

[Swedentom]

Will this feature be made default for Google.com sometime in the future, or will it remain as an alternative?

Using PHP

[Anonymous Coward]

I would like to use an auto complete textbox but it would run a php script after every letter entered to get results. All the auto complete examples I've seen look at an array inside the javascript instead of going getting some results from a php program.

Cool Google, now what about groups?

[Tajas]

Seems that google is doing some good things while making other things not as good. Google suggest is an example of starting to do things right. This is probably related to the new MSN Search Beta and other sites like teoma competing with google.

I tested out Google Suggest by typing supercal which showed me how to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Now, if I want to know how to spell something form Mary Poppins I got Google Suggest :-)

"They" - "They Might Be Giants"

[tim1724]

Cool.

Type in "they" and get "they might be giants" :-)

Yay! A new Google game!

[Egorn]

Here's a fun game for you time wasters! Judge your level of internet fame by counting how many letters you have to type before Google suggests your name.

Example:
Type "t" first option is Tara Reid (Thanks to her freshly doctored boobs.).
Type "tom c" and you get Tom Cruise (possibly the greatest actor ever!!!!! we love you tom)
Try "bill" and you get Gates and Clinton.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's big ass shos up at "arn." Because he's famous.
Try "joe lu" and you got my name because I'm FAMOUS!! I love me!

One more thing..

[Egorn]

Ohh! One more thing I just found, check it:

http://www.google.com/complete/search?hl=en&js=tru e&qu=natalie%20portman - The results in a nice pretty array!

My proxy filter disables such javaisms...

[Kazoo the Clown]

Which I consider a GOOD THING(TM).

Anything that's operating on my keystrokes (or on my computer, for that matter) while I'm typing is a BAD THING(TM). Especially things that steal input focus. Can you tell? I really miss the typeahead feature we used to have before the GUI days, at which point we all regressed from 10-finger organisms to 1-finger ones (ever seen a mouse that gives you more than one arrow?)

The absolute WORST flavor of this "anticipatory" typing feature is the Unix shell used by SCO that tries to guess the directory I mistyped when doing a "cd"-- as invariably, by the time I notice it's promted me for the variation, I've already entered most of the keystrokes to correct the problem and find out they've been gobbled up by the "Is this what you meant?" input prompt...

On the other hand, has Google finally fixed something that NEEDS fixing-- disabling the "esc-key-deletes-all-your-text" in large textboxes (at least, in IE)? It can be disabled pretty easily in javascript (and should be, as there's no UNDO and anyone who uses "vi" will invariably hit it). I've added it to my proxyfilter, but I still get hit by it when I'm using someone elses computer...

What I'd really like to see is better browser features that will impose USER configured constraints on web pages rather than the other way around-- not just "no popups", but a comprehensive "disallow this Java or Javascript feature, or radically alter it" or "use this editing paradigm in textareas"-- stuff that will make life difficult for page designers rather than all this stuff for page designers to make life difficult for users...

It gets better

[deblau]

Try "sex". ... Heh, that's funny on a lot of levels.

XMLHTTPRequest

[duncangough]

It looks like a Google version of these new XMLHTTPRequest objects that most modern browser have now.

We've used this on Playaholics for our help pages:
Playaholics: Help - using XMLHTTPRequest

The best thing with these new controls is not only are they going to have a big say in the future of the web, if you disable Javascript the whole thing still works - it degrades very nicely.

I use google as a spell-checker

[peter303]

When I cant remember the correct spelling, like those #$%^ -ible/able words, I type it into google and usually get the right spelling.

Re:I use google as a spell-checker

[Anonymous Coward]

as do i.. and since i use opera and its always open and has a google search field, i use it all the time

Works with Konqueror 3.3.2

[freqmod]

I just updated to Konqueror 3.2.2 (...it took a while to compile it on Gentoo), and retried Google sugest. I discovered that konqueror didn't crash:)

Big deal...

[truth_revealed]

If I had an R&D budget a quarter the size of Google (say only $50 million) I could have the damn browser code a complete office suite in Javascript while riding a unicycle while reciting the complete works of William Shakespeare - and I'd still have money left over for lunch.

I worked on a feature like this once

[currivan]

I worked on this sort of thing, but not interactive, for a different search engine company. The biggest problem is removing the offensive content. The worst one I remember was linking "summer camps" and "concentration camps".

Google seems to have filtered the obvious porn words, but you always miss a few. "cam" maps to "camel toe" in a few variants, and "nig" has unfortunate results too.

It looks like common searches

[schmaltz]

I'm guessing Google bases this list on common searches other people have requested, rather than presenting the entire set of N-grams that begin with the "the" node (which would be enormous.)

Re:It looks like common searches

[Anonymous Coward]

So it works based on how common a search word is, eh?

All you Slashdotters should see what happens when you type in "yarni"!

Ok, heh, was that funny to anyone besides me?

vanity searches

[fish vs. water]

Allows a twist on vanity searches: how many letters do you have to type before your name comes up. I found a friend's name on 3 keystrokes, best so far. I come in at 7 keystrokes. Celebrities and politicians are easier ("Ge" => mr. president).

Proof of Censorship...

[Anonymous Coward]

google is gay
google is shit
google is evil
google is crap
google is god
google is stupid

p.s. - i have no problem with them censoring PORN suggestions

Google-a-gorey

[jbum]

A is for Amazon, which sells Segway scooters.
B is for Best Buy, the favorite of looters.

C is for CNN, only slightly left-leaning.
D is for Dictionary, spelling, syntax and meaning.

E is for Ebay, which sells used lunch boxes.
F is for Firefox, which IE outfoxes.

G is for games, and not Google. Amazed?
H is for Hotmail, which GMail will raze.

I is for IKEA, selling meatballs and sofas.
J is for jokes, favorite pastime of loafas.

K is for Kazaa, full of pirated bands.
L is for lyrics, puerile and bland.

M is for Mapquest, disorientation prevents.
N is for news, for current events.

O is for online dictionary, full of lore.
P is for Paris Hilton, stupid whore.

Q is for quotes, quips and barbs.
R is for recipes, all lo-carbs.

S is for Spybot, your adware must die.
T is for Tara Reid, of American Pie.

U is for UPS, which has the brown trucks.
V is for Verizon, whose reception just sucks.

W is for weather, like cyclones and twisters.
X is for Xbox, my thumb still has blisters.

Y is for Yahoo, still in business. A mystery.
Z is for zipcodes, which soon will be history.

Google made me do it! I want to kill...

[Anonymous Coward]

google, the gateway to a felony charge

type - I want to kill

it's not censorship

[Anonymous Coward]

good lord talk about over reacting. that's like complaining about Disney characters not having sex. i mean you have to assume the public is reading this, and the 'public' is including children. I wouldn't want children to look up "cunning detectives" and get explicit interferance. STFU. I swear it's the stupidest thing half the time people cry about 'censorship' like we should allow Playboy in elemtary schools the way you all say it.

it's not as if google is stopping the searches, but it's different when you're suggesting words to people. I'm sure when they get outta Beta it will work with your normal google cookie to allow adult words.

- The Wolfkin

Kinda Useless

[LaplaceTransform]

Who goes to search something when they don't know what they are searching for in the first place.

Personalized SmartSearch

[space_man51]

I know there has been a post about privacy concerns in this discussion before, but this is on the opposite topic:

I think it's about time Google comes up with a personalized search tool that will remember my past queries and which results I clicked to bring me more relevant searches (and advertising). Optionally, it would also scan my GMails for more context (at least at the beginning). This would be a completely optional feature of course.

It is obvious that Google has the technology and computing power to create such a service. It would be a very small extention of their already complex algorithm. Sort of like giving pages an extra rank boost, like Karma bonus.

I think they are doing it for fear of privacy advocates, so if there are other people who want such a feature, we should let them know (I already did).

Google UK...

[jdtanner]

...is 'suggestified' as well

http://www.google.co.uk/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

John

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[Nomihn0]

Yes, those are short words. Nonetheless, "dog" is available in the autocomplete list. If you can make the searches with vanilla Google, why not include these popular terms?

Maybe this can be combined with the Google Labs Profiling system to better accommodate people who wish to make socially-taboo searches more efficient. Also, imagine the political implications. Forget about sex, that's not what concerns me.

I think the FAQ question is the greatest...

[ral315]

9. I don't want anyone to know I'm into lemur racing. Is my information private?

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[Nomihn0]

I am actually extremely liberal about the internet and its various uses. I was only making sure to balance my point with an opinion that validates my objectiveness in this situation.

Because it's a registered domain name

[Poulpy]

http://www.goooooooooooooooogle.com/

Mother Google

[Ummu]

This is kid friendly too! Doesn't give you any words that lead to porn. Unfortunately, just type "aborted" and look at pretty pictures of aborted babies...

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[mr_jrt]

The use of the phrse "political implications" made somethign occur to me...something like this has some subtle potential to persuede people unsure of the correct terms somewhere else, almost as if someone was physically nudging them away from the newstand's copy of "TinHat Weekly" whilst they were browsing the shelves.

Think about it, as the user starts typing this service could feasibly suggest only searches that have a certian point of view as the first few results, which is more than enough to cloud the issue for a casual user.

Still, same could be said for the bias present in all information sources really, but still an interesting thought.

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[Sarcastic Assassin]

How exactly is this a problem? Regular ol' Google Search provides over 8 billion pages. Is typing "sex" (or, more appropriately, "sexually tramsmitted disease") and then pressing return such a big hassle, that you need Google to automatically complete it for you? Plus, if you actually type in "sex" (or "sexually transmitted disease"), you still get a result, so I think you're jumping the gun to say they're censoring you.

Then again, they may want to avoid the CPU load that AutoCompleting "sex" may bring...

--
Obligatory meme: In Korea, only old people don't use Google Complete!

It's censored - Re:Try this:

[Syre]

Try typing any sex related word.

None of them are there.

Not even anatomical terms such as "penis" and "vagina".

They do have "penile cancer" and "vaginitis" though.

Re:It's censored - Re:Try this:

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course it's censored, you don't want kiddies looking for "portable mp3 players" finding out portable isn't the no. 1 hit for "por" do you?

I think there's a case that this should be linked to your preferences however so the list is only filtered if SafeSearch is on, at least then people who want to find out about penis extensions don't have to type as much...

And of course, "pr0" still brings up the links you're after

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[Sarcastic Assassin]

Plus, if you actually type in "sex" (or "sexually transmitted disease")

...and press enter...

...you still get a result...

Doesn't work...

[Snaller]

...too well in MSIE if you have disabled font sizes (which I must since most sites abuse stylesheets to lock the font in a tiny unreadable font).

Sounds almost like MS SmartTags

[ChrisPee]

This technology is quite similar to Microsoft SmartTags -- except that Microsoft is Evil and Google is Good, right?

Re:What Google needs is Lexis-Nexis and Journal ta

[fbg111]

What Google really needs is a for pay LexisNexis tab so you can find real information from real sources in real time. That and a tab that indexes full text medical and science journals. Those damn journals! I love em but I don't have hundreds of dollars a year for each Psych. journal I want to read and hate going to libraries if I just want to see what's shaking in the world of science. With full text periodicals and full test journal search Google would become a singularity of information.

Agreed, however what would be even better would be for them to just buy Lexis and the journals and make all their content available online for free. Expensive yes, but it would give Google a lock on the most pertinent and valuable of human knowledge (real knowledge, not Paris Hoochie bs), driving insane amounts of traffic through their site and commensurately increasing their ad revenue.

The poor man!

[Anonymous Coward]

If only you could spell girlfriend properly, you'd have plenty of suggestions, like my girlfriends mom.

Re:I call foul: CENSORSHIP

[shird]

They seem to have filtered out personal sites, as my name does not appear (although it is indexed by Google.

Really? My name is indexed fine and appears in teh auto-complete list. Britney Spears' name also. Perhaps youre just not popular enough?

No luck searching for analogy or cockpit.

[CharonX]

Tried searching for analogy and cockpit.
Google suggest must have a very dirty mind (and lacks the option to turn off the "adult" filter

What the...

[Headcase88]

booooo --> boooooobs

What the hell?

Is this news because google is doing it?

[Psychotext]

Because this isn't the first time that I've seen this in use. I saw it somewhere else before the link below, but the linked page gives a good idea of how to implement such a thing (Though I'm sure the google solution is more complex):

http://www.codeproject.com/jscript/jsactb.asp

When you google for "suggest" it suggests...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yahoo?

http://www.google.com/search?q=suggest&btnG=Sear ch +the+Web

Maybe I'm thick but it wasn't obvious to me how to find this page other than the /. reference.

Re:What Google needs is Lexis-Nexis and Journal ta

[firew0lfz]

Try this:

http://scholar.google.com/

Not exactly what you want, but close.

Just when you begin to wonder

[hairykrishna]

You know. Has google "jumped the shark" (to use the parlance of our times). Then they come out with this. You know it's a great idea because, ten seconds after you first see it, you're thinking "I could have thought of that" which slowly changes to: "Man, why did nobody else think of that"

Re:Just when you begin to wonder

[waxster]

Some one did -- check out LookAhead at http:/news.surfwax.com -- this is a "structured version" -- works well with unstructured data too (e.g., world wide web) -- and months ago.

= !WRONG

[kv9]

from the faq

As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time. This is similar to Google's "Did you mean?" feature...

Re:= !WRONG

[devilspgd]

Reading isn't your area of expertise, is it?

Go to Google and type "speeling mistake" and Google will say "Did you mean: spelling mistake"

This is completely different from "Google Suggest" which won't come up with "spelling mistake" at all when you type "speeling mistake" (although the "Did you mean" feature will still catch it)

Re:= !WRONG

[kv9]

sim-i-lar
adj. 1. Related in appearance or nature; alike though not identical.

both are *suggestions*. one in realtime one not. if i, for example, search `sceneish' google will *suggest* `spanish'. but as long as you seem to know things about stuff better than google folk, maybe you should *suggest* them to change their faq, and stop contradicting themselves.

upskirt

[Anonymous Coward]

true,

they must have deleted 'rude' search terms.

type 'upsk' the first suggestion is a misspelling of upskirt. (upskrit)

No Dirty Words in Google, Eitther

[Zastrossi]

Google appears to have pulled an MSN Spaces--they appear to have excised a number of 'questionable' terms from the suggestion list. There's little reason behind their approach. For example, the app won't suggest 'lesbian' or 'homosexual', but it will suggest 'dyke' or 'lesbian'. Anything related to 'anal' or 'oral' is out, but 'wanker' and 'golden shower' are in. 'Asshole' is out, but 'assholic' and 'asstastic' are in.

I've created a decent-sized list of what Google approves and disapproves.

Obviously, you can search for any term--Google just won't predict the first list for you. In a typically American approach to censorship, there are not restrictions on racist or violent terminology. 'KKK', 'snuff', 'torture' and 'bum fights' are all in (as they should be). But we can't be predicting terms like 'oral exam' or 'sex education', can we?

I checked the Advanced settings for Google Suggest, and my SafeSearch was turned off (set to 'no filtering'). Either it's a bug, and Google Suggest isn't reading this setting, or Google Suggest won't suggest these terms, regardless of setting.

I found a bug!

[bazily]

Not sure if anyone else caught it, but the bottom search box doesn't actually "suggest". Guess that's why they're still in beta... Oddly enough, I've seen many a web coder trying to figure out how to make a text box turn into a drop down based on what the user typed. Guess Google is going to make them learn know.

obligatory simpsons

[Magius_AR]

Does Google in Australia guess "beer" whenever you type "coffee"? :)

Google set + Google Suggest

[dawalama]

http://notes.customizards.com/google_keywords

You talking about supper?

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, depending WHAT your girl "fried"... If that was a typo, it may account for you not getting any hits. Not the nerdiness of Google employees.

won't get much work done

[martinflack]

Ok, testing Google Suggest....
let's try "linux"

l...
lyrics
etc

li...
limewire
etc

lin...
lindsay lohan
etc

[pause]

Um, you know... I can get back to a linux search anytime...

I'd never get any work done with this! ;-)

JavaScript Declared Bad: Entry Point for Crackers

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad that anyone who surfs the WWW with JavaScript enabled is asking for his system to be penetrated (certainly if (s)he is running Windows).

But the autocomplete feature is nice for an intranet.

Re:Obfuscated JS [just look at the HTTP headers!]

[jaydho]

If you look at the live HTTP headers, you'll see where the requests go to:
http://www.google.com/complete/search?hl=en&js=tru e&qu=slashdot

You can easily parse the return results...

To illustrate:
http://www.jdhodges.com/tools/suggest/
It gives you the suggestions even if your browser doesn't have JacaScript :-)

Enjoy, and please post here if you make any cool suggestion tools!

Google whacked

[Brontojoris]

This should make google whacking a whole lot easier!

Cool trick

[krogoth]

What's even better is the history of the technology they use...

Re:What Google needs is Lexis-Nexis and Journal ta

[F34nor]

I fully agree. There's little reason these journals should cost what they do other than the crushing burden of printing for such a small audience. How much does the jury earn on these journals? It's the kind of thing I would assume is a gratis service by the peers. So why don't they go all electronic. No one in acadamia is ever more than 10 feet from a computer. They could also license the ability to print the documents hard copy for the guy in Patagonia looking at ant behaviot in mud puddles.

The for cost I was thinking for LexusNexis. Although they recently intoduced a pay per item pricing system ~$1+ per page.

Googlewhacks don't come up

[blorg]

...it only works for words with a certain minimum level of popularity.