Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Google This, Dude! Follow-Up

Last week, I discussed a slate article on google's filling in the search tendencies.  Well, Slate had a contest and here are the top five searches.

My reactions:
  1. Borax is quite useful but not so easy to find, so I am not surprised it appears on #5.  And obsession with Erin Andrews is a well-known internet syndrome.
  2. Watching free movies and especially True Blood seem to be popular.  I have not yet succumbed to the temptation to engage in piracy despite my frustrations with Canadian broadcasting or non-broadcasting of American stuff (ESPN's 30 for 30 comes to mind).
  3. Mis-spelling Def Leopard is not a problem.
  4. "How Can I Destroy ..." the World, my jeans, a website???  Oh my!
  5. The 2nd place finisher illustrated the difference between "how can a person" vs "how can a human" with the latter more focused on .... inter-species reproduction???
  6. First place juxtaposes: "is it wrong to" with "is it unethical to."  "Is it wrong to" is completed mostly by questions about "relations" with kinfolk. Oh my.  
Interesting stuff.  I wonder if the answers change over time as this kind of survey changes what people search for, leading to new answers?

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