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Google told to halt auto-complete

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#11

Post by andos »

Do you know what kind of auto-completing Google should really halt? Spoilers. Do not type Game of Thrones character names on Google.

EDIT. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to spoil by implying that there are spoilers. I removed the character name.

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#12

Post by mseebach »

andos wrote: post #11

Do you know what kind of auto-completing Google should really halt? Spoilers. Do not type Game of Thrones character names on Google. EDIT. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to spoil by implying that there are spoilers. I removed the character name.

Huh? I get "actress", "quotes" and "imdb".

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#13

Post by mseebach »

Auto-complete is just a subset of search. Why is it more offensive to type "john smith" and get the suggestion "serial killer" than search "john smith" and have the first three results being about John Smith, the serial killer, and only getting to John Smith, the mountaineer and cat lover, in position four?

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#14

Post by mseebach »

AznHisoka wrote: post #7

Those auto-completes can be gamed, as most of them are just searches most people have done. What you do is get a large group of people to search for + something else. Of course you need to be creative, so rather than tell your friends, make it a contest or something. Or in your Linked In profile and email signature, put something like "If you want to see my latest resume, just google " resume".

Aka Google bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#16

Post by gradstudent »

I'll go against the popular consensus and argue that Google needs to turn this feature OFF by default. When ON, it's far too easy to assume the auto-complete represents the "right" search terms. IMO, it should be clearer that what it actually represents is similar searches other people have performed.

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#17

Post by eavc »

andos wrote: post #11

Do you know what kind of auto-completing Google should really halt? Spoilers. Do not type Game of Thrones character names on Google. EDIT. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to spoil by implying that there are spoilers. I removed the character name.

I wasn't planning on it, but I feel somewhat spoiled by your warning, actually. Maybe I shouldn't, but I can't help make certain assumptions when given a character's name and that there are major spoilers on the level you've described. : /

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#19

Post by Tichy »

I am starting to regret that I gave my child only two first names. What would be a reasonable number for the future? Maybe 10, or even 100?

The idea being that you can switch your "official" name easily...

Re: Google told to halt auto-complete

#20

Post by AznHisoka »

mseebach wrote: post #14
AznHisoka wrote: post #7

Those auto-completes can be gamed, as most of them are just searches most people have done. What you do is get a large group of people to search for + something else. Of course you need to be creative, so rather than tell your friends, make it a contest or something. Or in your Linked In profile and email signature, put something like "If you want to see my latest resume, just google " resume".

Aka Google bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb

Google bombing usually means artificially trying to get a webpage to appear #1 for a specific keyword. This technique is not about trying to rank, but trying to get a phrase to appear in the search suggestions. Not many SEO blogs have even touched on this...
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