Google Suggest Dissected, Part II

Bert690 writes "To complement the recent dissection of Google Suggest's innovative front end, I investigated [Coral Link & mirror] the back end of the system in an effort to determine just how it generates suggestions. Along with some preliminary findings, you'll find a pointer to a program for enumerating all possible suggestions from a given starting point. I found the number of possible suggestions to be surprisingly small considering the immense scope of the web."

when will they get it?

[Quasar1999]

It's not the amount of data that a program references to create a result, it's the precision of it's result that matters... if it can do it with relatively little data, then it was designed/implemented by someone who knows what they're doing...

Re:Funny

[Performaman]

And when you enter "y," the first thing you get is "yahoo."

we're not all one big group

[Anonymous Coward]

Google needs to remember the last x queries that we submitted and the time we submitted them to better guess what we're looking for. If I hit 'p' I get Paris Hilton even though previous searches were for perl, parrot and pascal.

When will they work out that there are different classes of users out there that look for different things at different times?

Google Suggest is easy!

[MicroBerto]

As big as the web is, it's just the same boring drivel over and over... it shouldn't be too hard to make Google Suggest! :)

Re:when will they get it?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not the amount of data that a program references to create a result, it's the precision of it's result that matters... if it can do it with relatively little data, then it was designed/implemented by someone who knows what they're doing...

True for very popular searches, but it you're searching for something more obscure, size most certainly does matter.

Next Step

[mahesh_gharat]

After some period Google will not only suggest but will also take decisions for you!

wait....

Isn't "I'm Feeling Lucky" option takes a decision for you?

Weird thing about Google Suggest...

[tommertron]

... it doesn't include dirty words. I know, I may be a little immature, but it's almost always the first thing I try on anything like this. There's not even a way of turning 'safe suggest' on or off or anything. Even such innocuous (and popular!) words like 'nude' aren't suggested. What if you're searching for nude models for your art class, or the great nudes? It's just interesting... Google is becoming very corporate in terms of filtering out content these days.

Who searches for these things??

[stevejsmith]

a: amazon
b: best buy
c: cnn

WHO THE FUCK SEARCHES FOR THOSE THINGS?? It amazes me how stupid people are - rather than type in amazon.com, bestbuy.com, or cnn.com, they actually search for them on Google.

Re:Weird thing about Google Suggest...

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't mind. I rather not type the world "child" or "kid" and see every pervert's references to kiddie pr0n.

Re:Weird thing about Google Suggest...

[tommertron]

Its in beta. When they release it, you can complain then. Maybe they haven't integrated into the Safe Suggest yet. Did I mention its in beta, and not done yet?

Why is there always a comment like this? Yes, it's in Beta, but isn't the point of Beta to discuss the product's flaws, or criticisms about it? And then maybe when it's 'done' we won't have to 'complain' as much. And whoever said it was even a criticism? Just an observation to provoke discussion.

What people seem to not be grasping...

[Coyote65]

Is that the internet is no longer *just* the geeks/nerds/calculator-watch crowd. There are increasing numbers of grandmothers and soccer-moms gaining access everyday. What was once a haven for the slide-rule crowd will soon become just like everything else, an asylum commercialized for the lowest common denominator - the general public. Once that milestone is reached, sites like /. will become fewer and fewer as we see more recipedot and howtogetmudoutofchildrensclothesdot popping up. It's not longer a possibility, it's an ever approaching event.
In other news, Merry Christmas!

google suggest is bad for the web

[clovercase]

in the early days of the internet, people were posting all sorts of websites on all sorts of topics. as the web became more commercialized, most geeks were (rightfully) worried that major commercial hubs would be created that would attract the majority of attention and dilute the importance of the more peripheral areas of the web. this trend is already underway, and tools such as google suggest will hasten the decline. users will be directed to the areas that most people are already going, thereby increasing the traffic to portals and decreasing traffic to niche or enthusiast sites. in my opinion, google suggest is ANTI-internet.

Re:Firefox Extension?

[Bou]

There already is: http://www.loconet.ca/ [loconet.ca]. Actually, it was released a day of Suggest was introduced!

Re:Isn't it obvious?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, not entirely obvious when have suggestions like "privacy alert when was the last time you cleaned your pc
clean out your computer and make it run smoother along with protecting
your privacy today try it free with the test now option for secure
privacy clean your computer at least once a week i want to... gtgt...."

better address?

[earthstar]

When will Google suggest get a better address than this one?
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

that long address wont help anyone.

Even if it is in beta.

Re:when will they get it?

[amwanted]

A world where 'everyone' has 'instant' access to 'all' the worlds' information may be a world where those who have used our collective ignorance to enslave us will no longer be able to do so. It also would not require 'everyone' to be involved at the same time. Opting out temporarily...or even permanently ( a very small number) would not degrade the system.