Beth Granter

Freelance digital consultant for charities


Google, time, work, money and the meaning of life


So I know that Google searches are now personalised, based on your previous search history. But the recommendations it makes in the predictive text as you type a search, are also fed by what the world is searching for. This was used in a campaign about the racism against Romanians, as Google predicts ‘stupid’ as the word most commonly search for after ‘Romanians are’.

In this vein, I wondered what other interesting things could come up. Here’s some examples, which I realise might be influenced by who Google thinks I am…

1. I/we think about time, work, money and the meaning of life.

2. I/we wonder about the science of the sky, and are generally pretty tired

3. Apparently I/we care about finding Chuck Norris. I really, really, don’t.

4. I’ve never searched for any of these things either. So that must be the world’s fault. So people care about some TV show, work (again), basic maths and being fat. That’s depressing.

5. The only one I might be responsible for here is ‘what is my ip’. So everyone else is trying to find a car and a hifi, and needs a watch.

I’m stopping now because the results are just annoying me. Searching ‘who’ suggested ‘who is in I’m a celebrity 2011’ as the top result. Really, world? Really?! Is there any hope for humanity?

 


One response to “Google, time, work, money and the meaning of life”

  1. My results

    What is the – same as yours
    Why – same as yours, except for top suggestion “why can’t I own a canadian’ (I kid you not!)
    Where – same as you
    How – same as you
    What – slightly different:
    what store
    what definition
    what car
    what ip

    Interesting! Suggests that personalisation is limited and instead its based on the mass search (and probably location?)

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