Tag Archives: Google

Are Bing searchers smarter than Google searchers?

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When I have Internet Explorer open, I use their embedded Search box to quickly find what I’m after.

Before I even finish typing, it’s often interesting to see what the search engines predict I’m searching for.

It’s quite an innovation to provide new web searchers with insights of what previous searchers were looking for.

Well, sometimes it’s helpful. Sometimes it’s a little worrying what gets submitted from the wisdom of crowds:

 

I have Google and Bing both available.

I thought it’d be interesting to see how they compare. Or should I say, how their respective search users compare – particularly, which side are asking dumber questions.

My comprehensive, objective analysis follows.

 

Exhibit A: What is…?

Of particular concern, Bing users asking “what is the time”. Is there any internet searching device without a visible clock? Or perhaps users know their time’s wrong, and this is the way kids today find the correct time. Or an abbreviated search to find time conversion sites? (I’m still concerned.)

Google searching overall here looks a bit like soul searching. It could be the start to the most obscure joke in history (which I don’t know the answer to):

Q: What do scientology, gypsy, love, and the illuminati have in common?

 

Exhibit B: Difference between …?

The stark difference I see is that Bing searchers look quite nerdy focusing on HD, smart phones, laptops, & economics. Googlers on the other hand are interested in food and alcohol nuances.

 

Exhibit C: Proof that…?

I found these common searches interesting. It seems people everywhere put their searches of the world wide web of information to good use, seeking proof of God and Jesus. In addition to this, Googlers seem to cast a wider net than Bing users to check on not only aliens and ghosts, but also vampires and mermaids.

And Google is suggesting that many people are still researching whether news of rapper Tupac’s death is greatly exaggerated or not. On this point, it seems there’s a glass half-full / half-empty thing going on. Surprisingly, the most popular “proof that” search overall is whether Tupac is alive. Then even more surprisingly, also in the list in sixth place is the query for “proof that tupac is dead”

 

Conclusion:

I think the analysis is inconclusive to say whether one group of search users are smarter than the other – dangit.

However, it does seems to me Googlers are asking a greater variety of interesting questions.

If I find any other interesting search suggestions in my travels I’ll post some more.

 

An update:
It’s interesting, and by total coincidence, just today The New York Times tweeted a link to an article they published on Bing/Google web search auto complete / auto suggest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/technology/in-search-engine-results-a-peek-at-what-we-wonder.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Settling an argument I forgot, about something with somebody

I can’t recall whom I had the discussion with, but perhaps months after the fact I decided to Google it.  And here’s proof (albeit from a freely editable authority) that Equatorial Guinea is not on the equator like many assume.

Despite its name, no part of Equatorial Guinea’s territory lies on the Equator. However, its island of Annobón is 155 kilometres (100 mi) south of the Equator, and the rest of the country lies to the north. The country that comes closest to the Equator without actually touching it is Peru, 4.3 kilometres (2.7 mi) south of the Equator.

via Equator – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

So there, whoever you are.

Google suggestions

Prolific Tweeter @Stephen Fry tweeted a link to the Google Blacklist. It’s supposedly a list of words where Google does not suggest the rest of the search in order to avoid offending anybody.  It relates to Google Instant which works by anticipating your search as you type each letter and giving the remainder of potential phrases to you as a possible link.  From processing 400 million queries per day, it usually has a pretty good idea of what you could be after.

Going through the list is slightly amusing.  But perhaps it’s more alarming how much time people have devoted to searching on rude words to work out if Google will keep quiet on the subject matter or not.

I thought it was interesting to also see Google take quite an innocent search into a totally inappropriate direction.
 
Earlier in the week I wanted to know if hummus (the Middle Eastern chick pea foodstuff) was healthy.  That was before I knew how to spell hummus.
 
Typing just “Is homo” to search on threw up 10 queries about homosexuality I never considered.

Some time ago I also found that typing a simple “How to” into Google would have some strange suggestions around -making babies -french kiss, and so on.. but checking this out now, it seems they’ve vetted the suggestions more sensibly.

I thought Irish Village would be, well, a village

I survived my second week in the job, and joined a few Aussies at Irish Village for more than a few pints of Guinness. Until then I have been on a real health kick, and avoiding alcohol.

The Irish Village is a nice pub, in a semi-secluded spot. It’s near a couple of our offices, and the tennis courts where the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships will be played later this month.

At the pub there was yet another case of, it’s a small world afterall. Initially there was just four of us at the pub, and my boss mentioned to one of the other guys, I should tell you, Ryan’s wife is from Tasmania.  I thought this was a bit abstract, but the guy made a bit of a joke, so I figured he may have been to Tasmania, or something.  But no! It turns out he’s from Ulverstone – the same town as my wife’s family. A town of less than 10,000 people. Now that’s getting a little freaky.

Ulverstone seems like one of those places though, like Toowoomba. If you’re having a chat with a certain number of Australians,  you’re more than likely to find someone with a connection to the place.  I remember Elle was working in a Brisbane bar a number of years ago, where she happened to work alongside someone also from Ulverstone – whom she had never met before.  What are the chances.

But anyway, The Irish Village was a nice place.  When I was in Australia considering whether to take the job or not, I did a fair bit of Google-ing to suss the country out.  One of my questions was whether they had anywhere that cooks some decent fish & chips. There seemed to be more than a couple of favourable references to the fish & chips at Irish Village.

It was funny how no matter what I searched for – no matter how obscure – there was always more than one web forum, or site where someone had asked the question previously.  I can’t think of all the questions now off the top of my head, but there were plenty of things like whether they had baby formula, childhood panadol, and things of that nature.

Google also helped me identify the sex of a person when I couldn’t discern it from the Indian, or Arabic name.  All you do is an image search on the name, and each and every time it displays dozens of images of people by that name. Presto.

Earlier in the day I did a fair bit of running around, finalising the joining stuff, such as attesting my marriage certificate. I caught a taxi from the Consulate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the guy was an absolute madman. Everyone on the roads here are obviously a bit crazy, but this guy took it to a whole new level. He actually had great skill with the way he could drive up to 100km/hr within 10 cm from the car in front, and stop suddenly at the lights. I was wondering why he was in so much of a hurry, and the only thing I could come up with was he going that fast to give him more time to watch himself in the rear vision mirros as he brushed his hands through his thick head of hair, and polish and straighten his shiny Ray Bans sunglasses. It was a bit compulsive. But he wasn’t just the king of speeding, he was also quite an expert at shepherding the other cars out of the lanes around him, and his use of the horn was quite special also.

In Dubai, people use their horns more than anywhere else I know. I would say on any built-up stretch of road, you’d hear a horn go off every 3 – 4 seconds. Most of the time, there are multiple horns going at once. There seems to be a number of contexts for people’s horning, and more than a few meanings attributed to it.  Yes, the humble car horn is a multi-faceted communication tool.

From what I’ve seen, people use their horns to say:

  • look out
  • hurry up
  • slow down
  • don’t cross there
  • hey, I’m driving here
  • LOOK OUT!
  • are you f-in crazy?
  • BOO!
  • you’re a mere pedestrian, don’t tempt me
  • this is your last warning. Grrrr; and
  • hey, it’s been quiet for three seconds – my turn.

The road rage statistics are actually quite low – if you believe the newspaper reports (which some have told me I shouldn’t do!)

We drove past some of the frantic construction of the Metro (Dubai’s first train system – expected to be running in Sept this yr). A sign on their wall caught my eye, “Know safety, no pain. No safety, Know Pain”. I thought this was quite insightful. Unfortunately it seems not everyone across the country has the same thinking. I was walking on a footpath, and at random intervals there were large and sudden drop-offs at least three feet in depth. I’d hate to be walking past there at night.

The night ended up going back to a birthday party of one of the expat gang. It was a pizza and trivia night party, where they used the Play Station 3 Buzz game. I was initially cynical, but it was extremely entertaining!  Particularly when the teams were split into guys and girls, and the guys would only take points from the girls – to ensure their demise.