Dave Pell used Google Suggest to find
Dave Pell used Google Suggest to find the suggestions for each letter of the alphabet. May or may not be strictly popularity-based, and looks to be filtered by humans for porn-based stuff.
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Reader comments
smoothjDec 10, 2004 at 2:45PM
It is absolutely cannot be poularity based. As Dave said, typing in P-O does not return porn, typing in S-E does not return sex.
Mike SteinbaughDec 10, 2004 at 2:59PM
Typing my first name in brings the porn sites right up. Sigh.
alan taylorDec 10, 2004 at 3:15PM
1: 1
2: 2004 Election
3: 3m
4: 411
5: 50 Cent
6: 60 Minutes
7: 7th Heaven
8: 89.com
9: 911
10: 10 commandments
Ryan SchroederDec 10, 2004 at 3:39PM
Someone on /. figured out how to get the mini-queries in the browser. for example:
http://www.google.com/complete/search?hl=en&js=true&qu=slash
replace 'slash' with 's' then 'sl' etc.
Karthik RamDec 10, 2004 at 4:06PM
smoothj: Looks like it is based on popularity but with a family filter since its still in beta. I'm sure the final release will have filter options.
Joe CrawfordDec 10, 2004 at 4:28PM
"." gets you ".com" and here are some more: google suggest ascii
brian bDec 10, 2004 at 5:39PM
pretty sure there is no family filter. i started typing my name and halfway through brian, i get brianna banks, and correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't she a pornstar?
Lester NelsonDec 10, 2004 at 5:51PM
so it sounds to me like it's a family filter, just not a very good one.
kirkioDec 10, 2004 at 8:18PM
i don't think its a filter. a few swear words will pop up if you type in the first few letters, the reason why i think porn dosen't show up is because who looks for porn online by typing "porn" in a search engine? you'd have to type in adjectives or other words related to porn to get some porn related search terms to show up since that's how i'm guessing it would be most commonly searched
Slava.Dec 11, 2004 at 12:46AM
kirkio: I'm pretty sure that there is a filter... it just filters based on the wording of a suggested query, not the content of the sites that could be found under that query. So if you start typing 'p' and then 'u' and then 's' and then... anyway it will never suggest the thing you're looking for.
donaldDec 11, 2004 at 1:37AM
As a Metafilter user noted, try "Britney Spears" and you get "Britney Spears nakid" and "nacked" but no "Britney Spears naked". I imagine it's a simple list of banned words.
r. vacaDec 11, 2004 at 2:23AM
Here's a fun trick: Just start typing z's
z
zz
zzz
zzzz...
It's kind of hypnotic or I am easily amused.
dougDec 11, 2004 at 3:17AM
right, first thing i tried was "sex" and "porn". They're too obvious to be let through. "Tara Reid" brings up all kinds of fun stuff, like "tara reid breast". Thanks, google!
jaydenDec 11, 2004 at 3:18AM
the humans who manually filter out the porn stuff must realllllly love their jobs. i know i would.
kirkioDec 11, 2004 at 12:31PM
i guess that makes sense. typing in 'les' provides a misspelling of what you'd be looking for. i retract prior comment. simple filters is what it looks like.
drewDec 11, 2004 at 2:39PM
I just went to regular Google ['classic' I guess you could call it], and typed in 'p'. If Google 'suggest' were unfiltered, it should memic Google 'classic' shouldnt it? A search in Google for 'P' shows Paris nowhere near.
richDec 11, 2004 at 2:51PM
If Google 'suggest' were unfiltered, it should memic Google 'classic' shouldnt it?
No, probably not. If you search Google for "p", you're probably not looking for Paris Hilton, so returning Paris Hilton results doesn't make sense. The things that come up in Google Suggest are popular searches, not popular search results for the current substring.
João Paulo PaglioneDec 11, 2004 at 6:59PM
Delightful! I wonder why my name João isn´t listed on there. Oh by the way, Jason, you got me hooked
on your site. I can´t get off the bus until you stop driving it. And if you stop driving the bus, then we
might blow up!
Your #1 Fan (but not in a Misery way)
Keep it up! You´ve inspired me to create my own blog after being online since 1994, and reading
links.net religiously.. I guess it has something to do with people whos name start with J.. hmm
Jason, Justin, Jesus, Juice, Jigantic, Jihad.. umm er ok that´s enough
markDec 15, 2004 at 11:44AM
Dave seems to think it's interesting that certain results beat out other results, i.e. "weather (somehow beat Walmart)", but I don't think people who want to go to Walmart's website type "Walmart" into google. The probably type walmart.com. right?
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.