Monday, December 20, 2010

Christmas Autocomplete Quiz


Google any word, and the search engine will suggest a longer word or phrase, based on the popularity of current searches starting with the same word.

Just for fun I entered some names of popular sailing boat classes into The Google to see what the great search engine in the sky would add to those names in its efforts to be helpful. See how many you recognize...

  1. hair removal
  2. er teresa
  3. bolt
  4. tuna recipes
  5. bucks
  6. egans wake
  7. ic
  8. hartley
  9. mouth
  10. whiskey
  11. car rental
  12. in oregon
  13. rise to candleford
  14. storm
  15. cottage studio


14 comments:

my2fish said...

I think I got 1, 2, 3, 5 and 11. I can probably figure out a few more with The Google, but I reckon that's cheating. You are much more familiar with your dinghies than I am, apparently. I didn't see an obvious clue that might be for "sunfish"... is the Sunfish really not even in the top 15?

Cheers,
my2fish

Tillerman said...

Well done my2fish. I would have included Sunfish but, paradoxically, Google is quite helpful when I enter "sunfish". It actually suggests "sunfish sailboat".

Anyone else? 4 and 6 really aren't hard.

Anonymous said...

I got 1 thru 11, but 8, 10 and 11 required egregious cheating.

Here's a small hint or #8: since I work at NASA, I was really annoyed when cheating with google gave me the answer.

Not too bad for someone who doesn't even know what dinghies his own club uses for summer sail camp. (I won't be able to help with camp 'til I retire, but by then my grandkids will be old enough for it.)

Steve in Baltimore

Baydog said...

Without google, I've got 4,6,7, and 9. I'm pooped.

Baydog said...

Yes Steve. I can't believe how quickly the hartley clue came up on Google. The shame

Tillerman said...

Well done Steve. 11 is a very good score.

Hartley is obvious once you know it but unless you're into astronomy (or work for NASA) may be a bit obscure to most folk.

12 thru 15 are quite tough, I think. I was surprised at what Google suggested to autocomplete these names.

Baydog - one of the ones you haven't got is a boat you wrote about on your own blog recently!

Baydog said...

14. Would have never known. I think I'll go to bed now.

O Docker said...

I knew a few, Mr Google told me most of the rest.

I didn't know number 10 was the name of a whiskey, too.

Maybe I should drink more.

And number seven, all by itself, is the name of another dinghy class.

Tillerman said...

Baydog - yeah the two word phrase suggested by 14 is somewhat obscure. And even after following the suggested link I'm still not sure what it means!

O Docker- IC is indeed a class of its own. I got there via Optimist-ic but I wouldn't be surprised if other classes might get you to the same place too. I had never heard of that whiskey either.

bonnie said...

2,3,5 & 6 were all I could figure out.

bonnie said...

Oh. And 1. Duh.

Tired from eclipse watching last night! :D

Tillerman said...

Seems like most people are working out some or all of the first 11 names. Some of them may be giving my American readers a little trouble because they are classes better known in the UK.

So here are the first 11, and I'll leave you to puzzle over the last 4 a little longer.

LASER hair removal
MOTHer teresa
LIGHTNING bolt
ALBACORE tuna recipes
STARbucks
FINNEegans wake
OPTIMISTic
COMET hartley
DARTmouth
FIREBALL whiskey
ENTERPRISE car rental

Comet Hartley 2 was the target of a flyby of the Deep Impact spacecraft last month, which is why it figured top of the Google suggestions for "comet" this month.

Fireball Whiskey was a bit of a surprise to me. I had never heard of it before. I wonder if they are paying Google for a higher ranking?

I think the Google autoconnect feature is somewhat dependent on locality of the searcher. The top suggestion for Finn for me was actually the name of a local restaurant named Finnegans. And there is a Dartmouth near here, so I'm not sure if all searchers will get that suggestion for Dart.

Anonymous said...

I only got Dart(mouth) because I went to Wikipedia for a list of dinghy classes. I'd thought it was just a car.

Steve in Baltimore

Tillerman said...

When I was living in the UK, Darts were cats. But now the brand also seems to be used in Australia and NZ for some of the boats sold under the Laser brand in the UK such as the Pico, the Bug and the SB3.

Post a Comment