Can Google read my mind?
Friday, April 9, 2010 –
Last night Paul and I were watching Hostel 2, on the SciFi Channel. When the movie was over, Paul was saying how it had given him a weird feeling because there probably really are “thrill kill” places like that in the world. As usual, I decided to do a quick google search to find out. I begin typing “do places” in the search bar, and automatically google suggested “do places like hostel exist?” as my search. WOAH… does google really know me so well that it can predict what I’m searching for before I type it? I mean, how many searches begin with “do places” that would have nothing to do with the movie Hostel? This really threw me for a loop. After all, I know that google is tracking everything I search for, but I never imagined that my search history was enough insight into my thoughts that google would be able to start reading my mind!
In all honestly, this was probably just a weird coincidence and if any of you try typing “do places” into the google search bar, the same suggestion will pop up. But it definitely made me think about how much of myself I share with google.
3 Responses to “Can Google read my mind?”
If you haven’t already, you should check out the site http://www.autocompleteme.com. It’s pretty weird at times and at others pretty damn scary.
I would assume that google searches basically throw up the most common searches - I obviously could be wrong there, but i bet you loads of people have thought the same thing. So if anything it’s scary that you get so many people thinking the same!
By Paula on Apr 9, 2010
That is pretty strange. I often wonder whether giving none threatening information for consumer purposes. On one hand it makes searches more convenient and looking for music that fits your taste, i.e. iTunes genius. On the other hand you are removing that unpredictability from life as well as the opportunity to interact with “real people”, visiting the music store rather than purchase from iTunes.
Great post.
By Eric Mata on Apr 14, 2010
OMG you’re already back to blogging!! How have you been? What have you been up to??
By Rachie on Apr 19, 2010