Sunday, May 25, 2003

Google Mindshare

Based on an idea by Steven Johnson, the Mindshare (or Googleshare):

“Google mindshare is calculated as follows: determine the size of the result set for a keyword or phrase. Determine the result set size for that query along with a particular person. Divide the second by the first and multiply by 100, yielding percent Google mindshare. For example: A query for Willy yields about 1,590,000 results. “Willy Wonka” +Willy finds 66,700. We can conclude—however unscientifically—that Willy Wonka holds roughly a 4% (66,700 / 1,590,000 × 100) Google mindshare of Willy.”
– Measuring Google Mindshare (O’Reilly)

For example:

• Ringo Starr has a 1.69% Google mindshare of “The Beatles.”
• Paul McCartney has a 3.71% Google mindshare of “The Beatles.”

Using above calculation shows that Google has a baffling 34% mindshare of “search engine”. In other words, 1/3 of all people talking about a search engine mention Google. We can compare this to other search engines (or directories with search facilities) in following “popularity poll” (figures rounded):

Search Engine	Mindshare
Google	34%
Altavista	1%
Yahoo	1%
AllTheWeb	0,1%
AskJeeves	0,02%

Google Mindshare by Philipp Lenssen

Ways for Google to Out-Google Itself

Tara Calishain, co-author of Google Hacks, is commenting on how Google could improve:

1. RSS feeds of all its properties, like Google News. Catch up with the likes of Daypop.
2. Adding an all-in-one search. Sometimes indeed it can take more time than necessary to search each tab (Google News, Groups, ...) individually.
3. Expand Google API to other services than just the Google Web search.
4. Reach out to information publishers to help them with their SEO work.
5. Pay closer attention to what people are doing with the Google Web API.

Other search engines trying to compete should not try to “out-Google Google”:

“[Out-googling Google] is a bad idea in the fast-moving timestream of the Internet. By the time you think you’ve out-Googled Google, they’ve out-Googled themselves and you’re still behind.”
– Tara Calishain, How Google Could Out-Step Itself, May 16 2003

Ways for Google to Out-Go ... by Philipp Lenssen

Google ASCII art

Do you know Google ASCII Art? You may know ASCII Art are pictures, created from nothing but text. Well, Google ASCII Art is an even stranger kind of recreation. It's based on the principle of creating unique keywords, which will then be colorized by Google's keyword colorizer — to make a picture appear.

Quoting Tim Flaherty's post to rec.arts.ascii, "[PIC] Just a cup of Joe (Google Search Colored Art)":

"aa ae ao ea ee eo oa oe oo coffee

ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ae ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ae ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ae ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ae ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ae ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ae aa aa aa ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee aa 00 ae 00 00 aa ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee ee aa 00 eo eo eo eo 00 aa ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee aa 00 eo eo eo eo eo eo 00 aa aa ee ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee aa aa 00 eo eo eo eo 00 aa aa 00 aa ee ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee aa 00 aa 00 00 00 00 aa 00 aa ee 00 aa ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee aa 00 00 aa aa aa aa 00 00 aa ee 00 aa ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee aa 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 aa ee 00 aa ee ee ee
ee ee ee ee ee ee aa 00 00 00 00 00 00 aa 00 00 aa ee ee ee ee
ao ao ao ao aa aa aa 00 00 00 00 00 00 aa aa aa ao ao ao ao ao
ea ea ea aa 00 00 aa 00 00 00 00 00 00 aa 00 00 aa ea ea ea ea
ea ea ea aa 00 00 00 aa aa aa aa aa aa 00 00 00 aa ea ea ea ea
ea ea ea ea aa aa 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 aa aa ea ea ea ea ea
ea ea ea ea ea ea aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa ea ea ea ea ea ea ea
ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea
ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea
ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea ea"

As you can see, you can see nothing; unless you entered the string "aa ae ao ea ee eo oa oe oo coffee" (no quotes) into Google Groups (or Google Web search cache, once this page is indexed) and clicked on the specific post.

Tim also posted other pieces. Go to Google Groups and use one of the following queries (note that changing the search order changes the colors), and look for posts titled "[PIC] ...":

• aa ae ao ea ee eo oa oe oo dork
• aa ae ao ea ee eo Bart
• aa ae ao ea ee eo oa oe Lincoln

Examples by others:

• travel hihihi "Testing Google"
• Ashi zdbe
• zs Spam Art xv Nathan cz McCoy xz vc
• sun sky land rock brightflowers darkerock lushgrass

If you want to create your own Google Art, you can use the Google Art Creator.

Google ASCII art by Philipp Lenssen

Egobot

Got questions? Now you can chat with Egobot!
All results are pulled from Google and the Web.

Egobot loves to answer. I present the first official interview for you:

“You ask: What is your name?
Egobot says: My name is captain, captain

You ask: Where are you born?
Egobot says: I am born to preach the gospel, listen, listen

You ask: How do you answer?
Egobot says: I answer ?

You ask: Can you dance?
Egobot says: I can dance - introduction to ballet for children (1989)

You ask: Do you have a brain?
Egobot says: I do have a brain

You ask: Where are you living?
Egobot says: I am living heart first in the new millennium when my thoughts, words and actions come from my radiant heart

You ask: Do you have hobbies?
Egobot says: I do have hobbies i squeeze in when i have the time

You ask: What is your purpose?
Egobot says: My purpose is simple: to communicate a new and clean perspective of life which i often refer to as clear awareness”
– Egobot, May 25, 2003

Egobot by Philipp Lenssen

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