Monday, February 4, 2013

The Wit and Wisdom of Google

Google's search autocomplete function sometimes brings some hilarious results.  Or fascinating results.  Sometimes, a combination of the two.

Today, at work, I did a search starting with the word "Are". (Yes, I do legitimately have reasons to do research at work.)  The choices Google Autocomplete gave me to complete my "Are" query were, with my answers:

1. Are mermaids real?

Would you believe that a U.S. Government agency, NOAA, has answered that question?  Sorry, fans of Ariel, the short answer is "no evidence has been found".

But then, the NOAA website goes on to state that many seafaring peoples have legends of "aquatic humanoids". 

Has anyone studied this?  

2. Are we there yet?

No. And why do you want to know?

3.  Are shingles contagious?

According to my internet research, yes, if you do not have immunity to chicken pox.

4. Are vampires real?

Surprisingly (to me, anyway) - sort of.


Have you had interesting experiences with search engine autocomplete?

3 comments:

  1. This is fasinating. The things you can do on the computer amaze me. I find now days the computer suggests things I haven't thought of when I type in a few words to look up. 'Sort of'. What sort of an answer is that? Chuckle.

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  2. Amusing! I suppose if people are wondering if mermaids or vampires are real, there are worse places to ask than Google.

    So I typed the word "is" in Google and it suggested "Is Santa Real?" And the very first result is a video of Santa! Guess I've been wrong for a long time.

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