Google Suggest Reveals the Truth About Us

November 12, 2009

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Slate Magazine recently asked readers to send in Google Suggest results for “less intelligent” versus “more intelligent” queries, like “how 2” vs “how might one.” They posted the results this week, and they reveal a hell of a lot about our search habits. There are quite a few gems in both Slate posts, but here are some of my personal faves.

"how 2" vs. "how might one"

"is it wrong to" vs. "is it ethical to"

The contrasts are certainly interesting, but so are the types of things we’re searching for. People are turning to Google for everything — question answering, information gathering, and true problem solving.

Ben Casnocha says it best:

Someone once told me that there is nowhere we are more honest than the search box. We don't lie to Google. Period. We type in what we're thinking -- good, bad, and ugly. There's probably no piece of information that would better show what's on someone's mind than their stream of searches.

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