Thursday, June 19, 2003

Google-like Surch

Today a friend was showing me Guhgel.de, which not only changes the Google search result, but also the pages it links to (it creates a funny German accent). Trying to recreate the basics of this I added an experimental Google-like search, Surch, using the Google Web API. This could now be used to add certain features, change the layout, or to create a parody by changing content. Like with Guhgel, one could also alter content of the linked pages (of course, you have to pull other pages to your own server, so the address bar would reveal what’s happening — Guhgel is using a frameset hiding this).
If you are interested in the PHP sources for Surch, just let me know. Note that you still need your own Google Web API key.

Google-like Surch by Philipp Lenssen

More on Google Trademark

Google Inc. doesn’t want their trademark “Google"* to be misused. But how often are Google-related words actually used? I conducted a little research with Google page-counts:

*GOOGLE is a trademark of Google Technology Inc.

Google	19,000,000
Googling	35,300
Googled	25,400
Googled	21,800
Googlesearch	14,000
Googlestats	13,000
Gogle	11,400
Googler	8,740
Googl	5,320
Googlex	4,310
Googleplex	3,610
Googlers	3,010
Gooogle	2,260
Goooogle	2,240
Googlert	1,770
Googlewash	1,180
Googlerank	1,130
Googlewashing	929
Googlebombing	913
Googlebomb	894
Googlemania	812
Googlology	465
Gooooogle	461
Googlosophy	125
Googletoons	191
Googleanswers	71
Googlebomber	43
Googleword	41
Googular	25
Metagoogle	23
Googlecentric	21
Googlyoogly	21
Googlerific	20
Googlesearching	19
Egogoogling	19
Googlecentric	15
Googliscious	15
Googlelove	15
GaGooglemania	13
Googleexpert	11
Googlerating	9
Googletoon	8
Googlefind	8
Metagoogling	4
Googlorama	3
Googlexpert	1
Googlemachine	1
Googleengine	1
Googlosophic	0
Googlologic	0
Metagoogled	0
Egogoogler	0
Googlewasher	0
Googlefrenzy	0

Google has reason trying to prevent “Google” to become a generic word (like “Kleenex”), because “Usage trumps Legality”:

“Rights to a trademark can last indefinitely if the owner continues to use the mark to identify its goods and services. If trademarks are not used properly, they may be lost and one of the company’s most important assets may lose all of its value. Rights may be lost not only because of a trademark owner’s improper use of the mark, but through improper use of the trademark by the public. (...)

Use the trademark ONLY as an adjective, NEVER as a noun or verb”
– Google Inc., Guidelines for Third Party Use of Google’s Trademarks

Makes sense, doesn’t it? So let’s see how this issue will continue evolve in ’Net-speed, or, to say it with the words of Larry Page, Google Co-Founder & President: “Have fun and keep googling!”.

More on Google Trademark by Philipp Lenssen

www.googlesearch.com

I mentioned URLs like “www.googlesearch.com” and “www.googleimages.com”. Now I see in my log-statistics people arrive at this blog by entering those queries in Yahoo. Both domains are currently taken by a spammer, and I suppose there are quite a number of visitors. My page containing those Google URLs has become the most-requested page of this blog.

www.googlesearch.com by Philipp Lenssen

Google Keyword Highlighting

If you run a website, you can highlight the search terms a user entered when coming from Google. You can see an example at my OpenTrivia.com website by entering “Who plays Don Michael Corleone” into Google. When clicking on the OpenTrivia result, you will see the message:

“Dear Google user, your search terms (“Who plays Don Michael Corleone”, respectively) have been hilited on this page."
– OpenTrivia Movie Data

The phrase “Who plays Don Michael Corleone” will now have a yellow background. To see a second color, add “Who plays Ross Geller” to the Google query.

I didn’t invent this approach, actually saw it before. Most notably, WebMasterWorld.com implements it. They also have a feature to turn off the option once you arrive, since the different colors might distract.
Note that the Google toolbar has a similar highlight feature when you use it for your search, but not all people use this toolbar (e.g. I don’t because it “traps” certain keyboard short-cuts in my browser).

If you want to implement this on your own, all you need to do is make sure the whole page-content (or the relevant searchable part) is written using a server-side scripting language (like PHP). Then you can analyze the HTTP referrer* string, disassemble the keywords from the URL, and re-format the output — e.g. by adding “<strong class="hilite1">...</strong>”.

* In PHP, this would be $referer = $HTTP_SERVER_VARS[’HTTP_REFERER’].

Following colors Google uses for cache keyword-highlighting, we get:

CSS for Google Highlight

Class Selector	Background Property
.hilite1	{ background-color: rgb(255,255,102); }
.hilite2	{ background-color: rgb(160,255,255); }
.hilite3	{ background-color: rgb(153,255,153); }
.hilite4	{ background-color: rgb(255,153,153); }
.hilite5	{ background-color: rgb(255,102,255); }

There are already scripts out there for you to download. Try Textism.com author Dean Allen’s Google Hilite PHP scripts.

Google Keyword Highlighti ... by Philipp Lenssen

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