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Google Instant – UnBlacklist

Andy — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:02:39 +0000

Google Instant was rolled out earlier this month, allowing users to see the search results for words as they are typing them. I won't bore with the details, as if you haven't seen it already, there are plenty of blog posts out there showing it off in great detail! There has also been a rush of talk about the dreaded "blacklist" that Google has applied to Instant, and how seemingly reasonable searches will not show up unless you complete the search word and click "Search" or hit Enter.

In light of the "naughty" filter (as it's being referred to), 2600 (the hacker group) have begun compiling a list of words that have been blacklisted by Google Instant, fairly or not. At the end of said blacklist, is a list of words which are not blacklisted, even though they would do well to be, given the guidelines Google seems to be following at the moment. You can, for example, search unhindered for the phrase "how to commit suicide" without the big G sticking its beak in.

Hungry to know more, I quickly thought of a word, to see which list it would fit in... out of curiosity. Imagine my surprise, when searching for "clung" - as in: "the climber clung to the cliff-face for dear life after his safety line snapped leaving him dangling above a great big gorge" - I was given the following suggestion from Google, as well as a full Instant result:

Note the lightly shaded letter "e" urging me to complete the search.

I also found the third result for the full, dirty, uncensored search reasonably amusing!

But you can't search for "teen"!

Worst Captcha Ever

Andy — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:04:10 +0000

I've never been one to submit my blog to any directories, link directories, etc, as I've never felt like monetising it. It's a site I run for fun and it goes through phases of being updated fairly regularly, to not at all and back again.
I recently, however, was reading a blog post about a number of blog directories, and decided to look through a couple of them. After browsing around Blogged for a while, I decided to sign up and see if the site would send any traffic this way. It was here that I encountered possibly the worst CAPTCHA I've ever personally come across:

Incidentally, what I put in was accepted, so I'm either very lucky, or the second part of the image is ignored!

Can you beat it?

Google Maps Fail

Andy — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:59:02 +0000

A search for a place to rest my head near to Exeter Airport (I had an early flight to catch yesterday) led me to perhaps the closest airport hotel, ever! Situated between the two runways at Exeter, this was going to be ultra, or even über-convenient!

Alas, Google Maps had failed me, as a quick look at the postcode of said hotel, and indeed the image which showed no nearby buildings, quickly alerted my suspicions. The Trelawney Hotel is actually in Torquay:

Google Maps, well and truly, failed!

CRAP – Campaign for a Recognised April-fools Period

Andy — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:43:49 +0000

A bit of light humour in the lead up to April 1st. Malcolm Coles has launched CRAP to avoid some of those usual web-based issues we see on the dreaded April-fools' Day.

As he puts it, those in the UK and Europe start seeing April-fools based jokes and posts, technically, a day earlier than we should, where as those in the US, once they feel safe after the midday cut off, are duped once more in the evening as those of us closer to Greenwich start pranking about!

CRAP - The Campaign for a Recognised April-fools Period calls for an internationally recognised, 24 hour period, spanning March 31st and April 1st.

SEO Dark Lord

Andy — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:07:11 +0000

In May 2008 I took the SEOmoz.org SEO quiz, and was happy with my 86% ranking of: SEO Master.

I stumbled back across the quiz a few weeks ago, and have been meaning to show off my latest result, so here it is:

SEO Dark Lord - 99%

Are you an SEO Expert?

Wimbledon Coverage 2009 – Search Engine Comparison

Andy — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:57:58 +0000

2009's Wimbledon Championships at The All England Club are well underway and I quickly threw "wimbledon" into Google this afternoon to grab the latest scores. Yes, I am one of those people who uses Google as a navigation tool rather than a Search or "Discover" engine at times, and I knew that the single word query would take me straight to what I wanted!
The result Google threw back at me, was quite impressive, showing currently active/recently ended match scores for the Wimbledon Women's Quarter Finals. Plain and simple (as is the norm with Google):

This led me to want to compare the Wimbledon results with other search engines. Where Google pulled it's data from Wimbledon.org, Yahoo! - due to its relationship with Eurosport - pulled their data from the Eurosport page on Yahoo.com:

A bit more detail, lots of rich links down the right (not overly relevant if you ask me). Also note a few no followed, supplemental links on the Wikipedia entry... And then there's the "Discover Engine" Bing:

Today, I discovered that for up to date information on a big event like Wimbledon, the old boys are doing it best!

Piglet Put Down

Andy — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:01:23 +0000

Piglet to be killed off from all future Winnie The Pooh publications!

Four Chords

Andy — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:32:19 +0000

Axis of Awesome perform a whole host of songs, mashed up, using only four chords.

The awareness test

Andy — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:46:58 +0000

Awareness test

Button injured in horrific F1 accident!

Andy — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:44:27 +0000

Button injured in horrific F1 accident