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Google Suggest Dissected, Part II

Posted by michael on from the kudos-for-correct-use-of-complement dept.

Bert690 writes "To complement the recent dissection of Google Suggest's innovative front end, I investigated [Coral Link & mirror] the back end of the system in an effort to determine just how it generates suggestions. Along with some preliminary findings, you'll find a pointer to a program for enumerating all possible suggestions from a given starting point. I found the number of possible suggestions to be surprisingly small considering the immense scope of the web."

10 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. when will they get it? by Quasar1999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not the amount of data that a program references to create a result, it's the precision of it's result that matters... if it can do it with relatively little data, then it was designed/implemented by someone who knows what they're doing...

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    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
    1. Re:when will they get it? by amwanted · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A world where 'everyone' has 'instant' access to 'all' the worlds' information may be a world where those who have used our collective ignorance to enslave us will no longer be able to do so. It also would not require 'everyone' to be involved at the same time. Opting out temporarily...or even permanently ( a very small number) would not degrade the system.

  2. we're not all one big group by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google needs to remember the last x queries that we submitted and the time we submitted them to better guess what we're looking for. If I hit 'p' I get Paris Hilton even though previous searches were for perl, parrot and pascal.

    When will they work out that there are different classes of users out there that look for different things at different times?

  3. Google Suggest is easy! by MicroBerto · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As big as the web is, it's just the same boring drivel over and over... it shouldn't be too hard to make Google Suggest! :)

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    Berto
  4. Next Step by mahesh_gharat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    After some period Google will not only suggest but will also take decisions for you!

    wait....

    Isn't "I'm Feeling Lucky" option takes a decision for you?

  5. Weird thing about Google Suggest... by tommertron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... it doesn't include dirty words. I know, I may be a little immature, but it's almost always the first thing I try on anything like this. There's not even a way of turning 'safe suggest' on or off or anything. Even such innocuous (and popular!) words like 'nude' aren't suggested. What if you're searching for nude models for your art class, or the great nudes? It's just interesting... Google is becoming very corporate in terms of filtering out content these days.

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    Random rants about technology: http://technorants.blogspot.com
    1. Re:Weird thing about Google Suggest... by tommertron · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Its in beta. When they release it, you can complain then. Maybe they haven't integrated into the Safe Suggest yet. Did I mention its in beta, and not done yet?

      Why is there always a comment like this? Yes, it's in Beta, but isn't the point of Beta to discuss the product's flaws, or criticisms about it? And then maybe when it's 'done' we won't have to 'complain' as much. And whoever said it was even a criticism? Just an observation to provoke discussion.

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      Random rants about technology: http://technorants.blogspot.com
  6. Who searches for these things?? by stevejsmith · · Score: 3, Insightful

    a: amazon
    b: best buy
    c: cnn

    WHO THE FUCK SEARCHES FOR THOSE THINGS?? It amazes me how stupid people are - rather than type in amazon.com, bestbuy.com, or cnn.com, they actually search for them on Google.

  7. google suggest is bad for the web by clovercase · · Score: 2, Insightful

    in the early days of the internet, people were posting all sorts of websites on all sorts of topics. as the web became more commercialized, most geeks were (rightfully) worried that major commercial hubs would be created that would attract the majority of attention and dilute the importance of the more peripheral areas of the web. this trend is already underway, and tools such as google suggest will hasten the decline. users will be directed to the areas that most people are already going, thereby increasing the traffic to portals and decreasing traffic to niche or enthusiast sites. in my opinion, google suggest is ANTI-internet.

  8. better address? by earthstar · · Score: 2, Insightful
    When will Google suggest get a better address than this one?
    http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

    that long address wont help anyone.

    Even if it is in beta.

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    Why does yahoo do this