December 11, 2004
Google Suggest Beta
This is just too cool not to post. Start typing a search and Google will begin to narrow it down for you, along with telling how many search results it would give.
I know I know, All our Google overlords are belong to us, but they can't be too evil...right?
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Nice, try searching for KHAAAN.
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Or try "bill gates is" - that link will give you an idea of how it gets its results, too. Technical stuff: It performs an XMLHttpRequest on key presses (using a timer in case you type quickly) and executes the returning code as JavaScript, which calls the function that shows the suggestion box. It's pretty cool, although it's a shame that they bothered to obfuscate the code. Obfuscation was pointless, too, because it's still not difficult to decipher.
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Well, it saved me several keystrokes when searching for "gerbil Richard Gere" and "kitten in a microwave", so for me it couldn't have arrived sooner.
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start typing in "Bush is..." and you may get a cheap laugh (or an idea for a really original Monkeyfilter post)
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The results for "Fox News is..." are more balanced than I would have thought. Great link. Thanks.
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Darn, I tried "nude accordion playing" and it didn't do anything.
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rolypolyman: "nude" appears to not to be in the suggestion dictionary, along with most other potentially sexual words such as "naked", "sex" and so on. This also, unfortunately, means that words beginning with the same letters are omitted, such as "sextuplet". They have missed quite a few naughty words, though; to find out which is left as an exercise for the reader.
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f-e-n-l...
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timefactor: The funniest thing for me is that it also works the other way around. Type "richard gere", and it offers to add "gerbil" as the third and "hamster" as the sixth choice. I'd hate to see it forced down by lawyering.
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You might also like Google Guide: Using Search Operators.
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Google has clearly sanitized the results but they apparently missed the first hit returned when you type in "8". (NSFW)