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Google Delivering Factual Answers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the delphi's-oracle-jealous dept.

nam37 wrote in about a Macworld article which reads: "Google Inc. on Thursday began delivering factual answers for some queries at the top of its results page, to save users from having to navigate over to other sites and look for the information. For example, if a user enters the query 'Portugal population,' Google returns the answer -- 10.5 million -- along with a link to the Web page where the information came from, which in this case is the population page of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Factbook. The query 'who is Jane Fonda?' triggers the answer '... is an Academy Award winning American actress, model, writer, producer, activist and philanthropist' and provides the link to the Wikipedia online encyclopedia's entry for the actress. A small percentage of queries currently trigger these factual answers, but the service, called Google Q&A, is in its early stages, said Peter Norvig, Google's director of search quality."

82 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. AFP vs Google News by fembots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is no doubt a good service for users, but will it attract complaints from site owners like AFP?

    Personally I would rather get the answer without going into a site and read through things to find it, and if I want to, I can click on the link and find out more from the site. However the content providers will certainly want you to come to their sites as soon as possible, look around and maybe explore other sections?

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
    1. Re:AFP vs Google News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      it probably works quite similarly to mit's START natural language processor. reading mostly creative commons sites like wikipedia.

    2. Re:AFP vs Google News by dingfelder · · Score: 3, Insightful

      how can they determine facts?

      If a user asks: who is George Bush for example, is the right answer:

      A. The current president, (blah blah, blah)
      or
      B. A Moron who (blah, blah, blah)

      The point being that the "facts" are sometimes in the eye of the beholder.
      Case in point, the CIA may state a different population than the country itself believes.

    3. Re:AFP vs Google News by j.blechert · · Score: 2, Insightful

      erm, actually it -is- a fact that he is the current president of the USA, but it's purely subjective that he's a moron.

    4. Re:AFP vs Google News by malsdavis · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't get it, it works on www.google.com but not on the international sites.

      Hope they add this feature to these sites soon though.

    5. Re:AFP vs Google News by magarity · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How is google supposed to survey the upteen billion pages, and decide what is subjective and what are the facts?

      Well, opinions are statements about your state of mind while facts are statements about the world. Calling someone a moron is an opinion because it reflects your state of mind regarding that person and calling someone the holder of the office of president is a fact about the world. So you'd need a lexicon of opinion oriented words and then entries could be parsed for loaded language like "moron" in the "who is" category for example.

  2. And? by DarkHelmet · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I know I'm just playing devil's advocate here... but...

    People criticize Wikipedia for being something that gets information from online sources. At least Wikipedia has a fellowship of users to prevent abuse, or misinformation from being on a topic.

    Yes, I know some of the answers will be coming from Wikipedia (And people wonder why google is supporting them). But what about the other sites?

    Of course, there's a link to the site in question, but as is asked of Wikipedia all the time, what level of accountability is there that this information is correct?

    Also, how does it determine which sites are authoritative in this manner? Is this relevance automated, or are Google employees entering in sites that they see as authoritative on the matter. For that matter, what is their criteria for deeming a site accurate?

    Google may be cool, but most of its algorithms and technology are closed. We have no idea how accurate the information will end up being, and also, how corruptible.

    After all, who trusts what the CIA tells us about anything? :)

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    1. Re:And? by MrAnnoyanceToYou · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But, at the same time, they retrieve the rest of your search results. It's not like they tell you they've got the only answer, they just give you what they consider their best answer. Much like, say, a lucky button or something. Only non-optional.

      --
      My little site.
    2. Re:And? by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Funny
      > Of course, there's a link to the site in question, but as is asked of Wikipedia all the time, what level of accountability is there that this information is correct?

      Shh! The first time someone asked Google that, the damn thing went into recursive mode and blew out three server clusters before the sysadmin team could shut it down!

    3. Re:And? by np_bernstein · · Score: 2, Interesting


      Google may be cool, but most of its algorithms and technology are closed. We have no idea how accurate the information will end up being, and also, how corruptible.

      After all, who trusts what the CIA tells us about anything? :)

      Paranoia aside, the CIA world fact book in an amazing resource. It's created for US diplomats, congressmen, and government employees as well as the general american populace. It contains pretty acurate, up to date information about different countries in the world. Honestly, I'm guessing that the CIA doesn't really care enough to doctor the listed ratio of women to men under the age of 25 for peru.

      --
      RandomAndInteresting.comdefending the world from stupidity since 1979
    4. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Of course, there's a link to the site in question, but as is asked of Wikipedia all the time, what level of accountability is there that this information is correct?

      Usually from a free service, there is no accountability. If you need an answer to a question, and you need to hold someone accountable for that answer, there are a number of paid research organizations that are willing to find what you need for money.

    5. Re:And? by Vombatus · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Also, how does it determine which sites are authoritative in this manner? Is this relevance automated, or are Google employees entering in sites that they see as authoritative on the matter. For that matter, what is their criteria for deeming a site accurate?

      Basic research skills

      Do not trust one source of information - always corroborate it with another source.

      If one website says that the population of Portugal is 10.5 Million and another one says 20.5 Million, then there is obviously an error somewhere. If the second one says 10.1 Million, then you could probably live with the difference.

      Of course, how many 'average users' trust everything they read on the internet blindly and would never think to question the information?

      --
      This sig is intentionally blank
    6. Re:And? by rk · · Score: 4, Funny

      What was scary was I asked Google "Is there a God?" and it replied, "Yes. now there is a God."

    7. Re:And? by davedx · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Also, how does it determine which sites are authoritative in this manner? I'd say it's 99% likely they'll go by PageRank. That's how they rank 'authority' for everything else - relevancy, accuracy, etc., in the end. Given 2 pages with the exact same content, the number of incoming backlinks (IBL's) will determine which site G. chooses - and the PR is a composite of IBL's + PR of pages they're on.

      --
      "This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time."
    8. Re:And? by NitsujTPU · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Having read the PageRank paper, which is apparently the backbone of their search engine technology, I'd have to say that they openned at least part of their technology to peer review.

      That said, as far as question answering is concerned. Question answering systems are an active area of Natural Language Processing research. If you are curious about them, you can easily get your hands on a paper or two on the topic by Googling "Question Answering Systems."

    9. Re:And? by Ersatz+Chickenweed · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I realize the "Is there a god?" post was a joke, but I searched it on Google anyway just for a hoot, and I noticed something interesting...

      If you search for "Is there a god?", Google informs you that it left the words "is" and "a" out of the search since they're so common. What's odd is that, if you just search for "there god?" (leaving out "is" and "a" like the search supposedly does), you get an _entirely_ different set of results.

      What gives? It's obvious that Google actually IS processing those very common words and returning search results based on them despite claiming otherwise (since the exact phrases showed up in the respective searches, common words and all), but why would they go to the trouble of claiming that they're omitting search terms when they really aren't?

      Maybe I'm just slow for not noticing this years ago, but I still find it intriguing.

    10. Re:And? by FLEB · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sounds to me like what you would say if your mouth was full.

      (chomp-munch-chomp)
      "So... mmf... Bill..."
      (chomp-munch-gulp)
      "Yuh?"
      (crunch... chomp-munch-gulp)
      "There god?"
      (suck-chomp-munch)
      "Ah'uh know."

      --
      Information wants to be free.
      Entertainment wants to be paid.
      You just want to be cheap.
    11. Re:And? by illusion_2K · · Score: 2, Informative

      ... or you could just go to Portugal's statisical office. From where their population data is availible with one click.

      The point is that there are definitive sources of information on the internet for various subjects, as long as you're aware of them.

    12. Re:And? by Sebastian+Jansson · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think that what they are telling you is that they don't search their index for "is" and "a". That doesn't mean that it doesn't matter when they are sorting the results by relevance though, which usually give the same result, even though not necessarily. If you, for instance, would search for a term that only are used on a few pages which don't have the word "is" on them, you'd get the results anyway if you don't explicitly state that "is" should be included.

      I'd guess that is one of those things that seam more important to the programmer than it actually is for the user.

    13. Re:And? by ricotest · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Google ranks results higher if the words are closer together. So it does its initial search for 'There God' but then looks for the phrase 'Is there a god?' when sorting them.

  3. Not quite. by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Try searching for "Who was the President of the United States in 1996" and you get Pat Choate. What a joke. Try it.

    --
    Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
    1. Re:Not quite. by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 5, Informative

      I did try it. When I read the sentence, it said, "Pat Choate was the 1996 Reform Party of the United States of America Vice President candidate."

      It is not saying the person is the answer to your question, though I guess you might have to actually read what it says to discern that.

      --
      Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
  4. Google's new math: What is 1/0 ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=1%2F0&btnG=Go ogle+SearchAnswer?

  5. No clue what about a henway by winkydink · · Score: 2, Funny
    at least when I asked it.




    What's a henway? Oh, about 3-4 pounds. Nyark, nyark, nyark.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  6. Slashdot effect by d3matt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Link
    Google knows about the slashdot effect.

    --
    I am d3matt
  7. Peter Norvig? by fdicostanzo · · Score: 2, Funny

    The AI Peter Norvig? He works for Google? Ok, I'm impressed.

    I need to get a job there. Where is the math problem that gets me a job?

    --
    Synergies are basically awesome, and they're even better when you leverage them. -PA
    1. Re:Peter Norvig? by Sexual+Ass+Gerbil · · Score: 2, Informative

      I took a double take too. It's the same Peter Norvig all CS guys with some AI background should recognize by name. Google is one company that deserves to employee PhDs, and I'm sure guys like Norvig do well in Google's research environment.

  8. If you ask Google... by mpupu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Query: What is Slashdot? Google: "... is a site full of geeks with no life" ;) Actually, it tells you what a slashdotting is.

  9. Web definitions by The+Bungi · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Google has been doing something like this for a while, with their "web definitions" entries. When you ask What is a monitor? for example, you get display consisting of a device that takes signals from a computer and displays them on a CRT screen and a link to the definition in context.

    I don't know that "factual" is a good term for a lot of the stuff on Wikipedia, especially "contested" articles that tend to go through revert wars and lots of vandalism.

  10. Satisfactory answers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    what is the answer to life, the universe, and everything? although it comes from the Calculator, not from Q and A.

    1. Re:Satisfactory answers. by loqi · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think you were off by a factor of ten, though...
      Google's real truth

      --
      If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
    2. Re:Satisfactory answers. by mikiN · · Score: 2, Interesting

      According to my Google, the answer is: Property.
      Oh well, the Universe must have changed into something entirely different or Google doesn't like capitalized sentences...
      See for yourself.

      --
      The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
  11. Heh by Sheepdot · · Score: 5, Funny

    My query:
    "Which search engine is the best?"

    Google's response:
    "AskJeeves."

    1. Re:Heh by MAdMaxOr · · Score: 2, Funny

      I asked Jeeves:

      Try The New MSN Search
      It's More Precise and More Powerful Find Just What You're After

  12. Alpha indeed by pherthyl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Portugal population" works, but "portugal population" does not, neither does "population of Portugal"

    So it's not very robust yet.. But it looks promising.

    1. Re:Alpha indeed by akorvemaker · · Score: 2, Informative

      Also it doesn't work when searching from a one of the localized googles, such as google.ca. The search needs to be done at google.com.

    2. Re:Alpha indeed by thogard · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And its a different system than the one that copes with "speed of light". Its missing stuff like "price of oil" or "price of gold". It gets "area of missouri" but not "area of germany". It seems to be triggered on a small set of keywords and an associated set.

  13. At 7:41 pm eastern time... by PakProtector · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, how long do we think it will be exactly until the Google Pidgeon Clusters become self aware and begin to correlate all this data only to come up with 42, and a recipe for a nice cup of tea?

    --

    Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
    man: no entry for woman in the manual.
    "Qua!?"

  14. I'm completely unimpressed by Da_Biz · · Score: 5, Funny

    It doesn't answer one of the most important questions of our modern times:

    "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"

    1. Re:I'm completely unimpressed by TWX · · Score: 4, Funny

      Funny enough, ask.com used to. You'd put in the question and the first reply would be, "What do you mean, an African or European swallow?"

      I think that as ask.com has come to be increasingly corporate that they've removed this unfortunately.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  15. Hmm... by themoodykid · · Score: 2, Funny

    What is the Matrix? doesn't seem to give the right result.

  16. Great! by Anita+Coney · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've been curious about Britney's actual breast size for a long time now. Maybe Google will help us end this debate once and for all.

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
  17. Different sources have different presentations by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Informative

    Compare the formatting for the question from the article, who is jane fonda, with another question: what is google.

    You can do a similar comparison between a couple of search terms from other postings: what is the slashdot effect vs. who was president of the usa in 1996.

    Google (currently) appears to format answers it's sure about (what's google, what's the slashdot effect) with an icon and a link to "define:term". Fuzzier matches (Jane Fonda and the putative president) get the nonsequitur text "Property:" and an "According to:" disclaimer.

    This looks like something interesting, but clearly still in the early beta. Which is *great*! I love getting a peek behind the curtain.

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
  18. Even Pi is Suspect! by wsanders · · Score: 5, Funny

    Type in "pi" and you get "pi = 3.14159265"

    EVERYBODY knows it's 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 10582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706 79821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081 28481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381 96442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190 91456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412 73724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364 36

    I hate it when they fudge data like that.

    --
    Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
    1. Re:Even Pi is Suspect! by hunterx11 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Type in "what is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?" and you get a more factual response.

      --
      English is easier said than done.
  19. "What is pr0n" by syntap · · Score: 3, Informative

    Pr0n is written leet slang for pornography.

    pr0n: //. [Usenet, IRC] Pornography. Originally this referred only to Internet
    porn but since then it has expanded to refer to just about any kind.

  20. EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Funny
    google query: what is a first post.

    answer:

    "First Post!" is a phenomenon of Internet discussion groups (notably Slashdot and LiveJournal), where participants strive to be the first person to add a comment ("post") to a new article or discussion thread. The phenomenon is largely confined to sites that have reached a high degree of popularity, such that users are genuinely surprised to see an article without any associated comments. There is also the necessary condition that comments are displayed in chronological order (meaning the first ...

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Funny
      Web definitions for Goatse Query: What is goatse?

      google answer:

      Goatse.cx (usually pronounced "goat-see dot see ex", often truncated to goatse, often referenced by one of its current URLs, goat.cx, occasionally called goatsex) is one of the most infamous Internet shock sites. Its front page contains a sexually explicit picture, hello.jpg, featuring a man wearing a gold ring on his left hand (and nothing else) manually stretching his anus and rectum to a diameter roughly equal to the width of his hand. Below the anus, the man's dangling penis and testicles ar

      --
      Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    2. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by ashot · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know both of these are jokes, but this isn't actually the feature that is being refered to here. Rather this is what used to be the google glossary, you can use the define tag to get the definitions explicitly:
      http://www.google.com/search?num=100& hl=en&lr=&c2c off=1&q=define%3Afirst%20post&btnG=Search

      --
      -ashot
    3. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by mpathetiq · · Score: 2, Insightful

      no, those are actual responses... i tested it myself.

      --
      Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
    4. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by ashot · · Score: 4, Informative

      no, those are actual responses generated by the "glossary" feature which has been built in for about a year (and available longer under labs). You can use it with the 'define:' tag.

      Test it out yourself, "define:us population" returns nothing, whereas it does return an answer on the google front page. They are awfully similar things it seems, I don't really know what the difference is per se (maybe answers are meant to be very short, exact, I dunno), but they are seperate features in Google..

      --
      -ashot
    5. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by jacksonj04 · · Score: 3, Informative

      A google is not a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. You're thinking of a googol.

      --
      How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
    6. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by XFilesFMDS1013 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Or....maybe because the actual word is googol. Got this interesting little fact from their corporate information page . Of course, since I did get both of these links from Google, they're probably wrong.

    7. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by Myen · · Score: 2, Informative

      Try spelling it correctly:

      What is googol

      IHBT.

    8. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by Lord+Ender · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Here is another good one.

      What is 42?
      forty-two: being two more than forty

      Clearly, this feature is not complete.

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    9. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by NarrMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, but asking the question, as opposed to the answer, reveals the correct result...

      Cleary, Google needs a Jeopardy feature:

      "Answer: 42"

      Or a punchline feature:

      "Punchline: 'Rectum? Damn near killed em!'"

      Maybe I can find the joke that punchline belongs too, finally...

      --
      That's right. All your base.
    10. Re:EXAMPLE: What is a first post? by alphakappa · · Score: 3, Informative

      This looks like a joke, but it is actually true.

      --
      "When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
  21. Do no evil is right... by Momoru · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well I guess they really are out to do no evil, as this idea is completely counter-productive to the current way they make money, which is by essentially getting people to click paid for search results. If the answer i'm looking for is told to me right at the top, random people will be less likely to click "Find more Jane Fonda at Ebay.com"

  22. Qoogle: Primum non nocere by omb · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I continue to be impressed with the quality and real innovation comming from Google, it is now very good and suddenly getting much better

    If I were them I would negotiate with AFP, Reuters so that the indexing Robot obeyed a delay time, since even slightly stale news, say 15m for FOREX and Equity prices makes the information unusable for trading.

    But, very good, keep it up Google, and show M$ what real innovation is about.

  23. Is there a God? by StarsAreAlsoFire · · Score: 3, Funny

    "There is now."

    (Stolen from one of the best short stories ever)

  24. Hell freezing over? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Has there ever been a slashdot thread in which a first post and goatse were on topic and insightful?

  25. hats off google. by roror · · Score: 2, Funny

    weight of pamela anderson

  26. Brainboost versus Google by Twinbee · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It should be interesting to see how it compares to BrainBoost.com

    Out of the 27 question I gave Google from the BrainBoost.com front page, it answered 9 of them. Ask Jeeves also answered 9 of them, but a slightly different set. BrainBoost got them all 'right', but then they are the questions that BrainBoost selected :)

    Here are the ones Google got right:
    Where is Iraq?
    How many people live in Israel?
    Who is the CEO of Amazon.com?
    Who is Thad Starner?
    What is solar wind?
    When was Cameron Diaz born?
    What is a calorie?

    Here are the ones Ask Jeeves got right:
    How many people live in Israel?
    What is the capital of Indonesia?
    Who was the 3rd president of the US?
    What is solar wind?
    When was Cameron Diaz born?
    What is a calorie?
    What does HTML stand for?

    --
    Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
  27. It doesn't matter by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 2, Interesting
    We have no idea how accurate the information will end up being
    Google doesn't just serve up information like an oracle. It tells you the source where it obtained the information. They can serve up data by throwing round yarrow stalks and looking up the resulting patterns in ancient Chinese manuscripts for all I care. If they give their sources then why do we need to know what their algorithms are in order to judge their veracity?
    --
    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
  28. Hate to say it, but Microsoft has done this alread by gregory · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Looks like google is the one playing catch up to microsoft this time. Microsoft search has had this feature since it was in beta. And it even gets teh president in 1996 question correct.

    http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=president+of+ united+states+in+1996&FORM=QBHP

  29. Currency Calculator by asdren · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I guess Google doesn't want to step on some toes but it bugs me they don't easily do currency conversion
    '39 euros to usd'

  30. It works! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck If a Woodchuck Could Chuck Wood?

    "As much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood"

    Genius!

  31. integration with calculator by ashot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    they should integrate it with the calculator.. won't be too useful now probably but, perhaps one day. You could already do simple things with what they have:

    us defense budget / us population

    I'm not sure how much semantic understanding is built into the system, but if they had some then lots of interesting things could come up as well("country with the highest defense spending", "Is there a correlation between x and y for z?")..

    interestingly, while the diameter of planets doesn't work, the radius of planets does register with the calculator:

    proportion of earth to jupiter

    alright.. not that useful.. =]

    --
    -ashot
  32. Movie Showtimes / Reviews by Amoeba+Protozoa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Probably old news to many but...

    If you search for a title of a recent movie, or optionally add a ZIP code it will give you the aggregate out of five "star score" and a list of theaters and showtimes near you for the given film.

    A search for "Robots 55419" yields the following:

    Robots showtimes for 55419
    1hr 30min - Rated PG - Animation/Comedy/SciFi/Fantasy - 58 reviews: (3.5 of 5 stars)

    AMC Southdale 16 - 400 Southdale Center, Edina, MN - Map
    11:10 1:30 4:00 6:30 9:15
    AMC Mall of America 14 - 401 South Ave., Bloomington, MN - Map
    1:20 2:20 3:40 4:40 6:40 7:40 9:20
    More theaters ...

    Pretty damned handy if you ask me!

    Google "Robots 55419" Query

    Also, doing "NWA 0355" yields the status of Northwest Flight 0355...there are similar little things for weather and even FedEx/UPS/USPS packages too.

    Anybody aware of any other cools ones?

    -AP

    1. Re:Movie Showtimes / Reviews by Omnieiunium · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://www.google.com/help/features.html

      Here is a list of all those features

  33. two features by dspeyer · · Score: 4, Informative
    There are two new features described here.

    The "what is" searches are taking from glossary. "what is foo" returns the first entry from "define:foo" along with a slightly re-ordered web search for "foo". This is a rather minor new feature: really just a UI tweak.

    The ability to search for facts is new, unrelated, and much more impressive (even if there aren't many facts in it yet).

    --

    Sig:Why copyright isn't a fundamental human right

  34. how much would he chuck? by nhtshot · · Score: 3, Funny

    how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood

    Answer:
    Woodchuck
    Could Chuck: As much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
    According to http://www.enchantedlearning.com/rhymes/Woodchuck. shtml

  35. Facts All Come With Points Of View by cmd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am reminded of the Talking Heads lyric, "Facts all come with points of view." I'm not sure Google really wants to be in the business of determining what the facts are.

  36. Who's so fat? by darekana · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who's so fat?

    (bad joke... sorry)

    --
    Interactive Visual Medical Dictionary
  37. Semi-OT: your .sig... by ktakki · · Score: 4, Funny

    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.

    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just Google.

    k.
    --
    "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
  38. Another example by Lord+of+Ironhand · · Score: 2, Interesting
    google query: who is cowboyneal

    answer:

    ... is the online nickname ("handle") on Slashdot and other websites of Slashdot editor Jon Pater.

    Who'd have thought.

  39. Re:Hate to say it, but Microsoft has done this alr by The+Cydonian · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The difference, naturally, is that Microsoft uses only Encarta for its results, whereas Google, at least in theory, uses the entire web to parse its results. (In practice of course, most of the results seem to be coming from either Wikipedia or CIA's factbook, but still)

    --
    More than mere navel gazing.
  40. In the case of Wikipedia... by greppy · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...rather a lot of people pee in said fountain.

  41. 42 by Headcase88 · · Score: 2, Informative

    5 + 6 = 11

    the answer to life the universe and everything = 42

    Don't worry, Google's down with it.

    --
    "When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
  42. different answers to same question by Dr.Opveter · · Score: 2, Funny
    this
    United States
    Population: 293,027,571 (July 2004 est.)
    According to http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/field s/2119.html
    that
    United States
    Population: 293,027,571
    According to http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2119rank.html

    I wonder why there's different results for every other time i click search..

    --
    Sample this!
  43. I've seen it in a movie! by LittleBigLui · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Terminator: The Google Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Google begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

    --
    Free as in mason.
  44. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion