Google Knows Everything

The GoogleSearch for the phrase itself is instructive: http://www.google.com/search?q=google+knows+everything

A thread at GoogleAnswers tests the claim with 45 facts to check: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=355369

The correct phrase is Google Knows All, as proved by the google search itself. It has higher popularity than google knows everything and better relevance.

Can Google tell me how to find fulfillment and inner peace? Can it tell me how to find true love? Hell, can it even tell me where to go have sushi tonight? --francis

Yes, yes, and yes. But it's not always easy. Google helps those who help themselves.

Please tell me what Google knows about inner peace. --francis

You're kidding, right? Well, ok, here's one approach: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22how+to+find+inner+peace%22

A cursory look at those results would indicate some results that have to do with inner peace, but which probably aren't of much use to me. (Everybody has a different way of approaching a question like this, no?)

I'm actually trying to make some sort of a point, though perhaps the point is too annoying to be addressed directly. Nonetheless, I'll state it as something like: Some sorts of knowledge are less controversial than others, and hence lend themselves to the application of organizational or technical power. Correct solutions to, say, installing Apache are easy to find with Google. The stock market theoretically knows the ideal price of a company's stock, etc.

But just because some sorts of knowledge are easier to automate than others, doesn't make them more valuable than others. In fact, I'd posit that the opposite is true.

By the way, Google: Where did I leave my house keys? --francis

Google says they're probably in your pocket, and if not there, check your desk.

A-ha! Wrong and wrong. They're in my bag.

This reminds me of the good old adage: "God answers all the prayers. But sometimes the answer is no.". So probably google knows everything, but sometimes it doens't tell you from what he knows what you're interested to find out.

Also, what does Google know about Jews? http://www.google.com/search?q=jew&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

--francis

Above I knew what you were driving at, but was kidding in response because, if you'll excuse me, it seems a pretty obvious point that there are any number of ways to contradict the page title, that's just common sense. Here, however, I don't get your point. What about jews?

Looking at those results, how would you characterize the state of Google's knowledge about Jews? Google's knowledge (as of this writing) seem to include the fact that the international Jew is the world's foremost problem.

Anyway, I'm probably just being too bloody didactic, but I feel like the sort of sentiment on this page (expressed only half-seriously, I know) does seem to lead a lot of people to really odd conclusions. Like the possibility that Google is God (entertained in the NewYorkTimes, of all places), or conversely, in talk by critics that Google should be regulated as a public utility. Don't get me wrong, Google's great. But like everything else, it's just a tool. --francis

You worry too much. No one sane takes this kind of hyperbole about Google seriously. I'm a long time fan only because it has mostly sucked less than other search services, and Google is going to some day find that a lot of people feel the same way. Google will be improved upon, and they will discover that search is as much commodity as it is brand.
- Much as the anti-Jewish literature on the web is repugnant, the notion that Google (or other search engines) ought to change their algorithms to specifically exclude such literature, or to exclude pr0n, or anything else that someone finds offensive, is equally repugnant.
- I strongly agree. Furthermore, it is useful to be able to find and track hate groups on the net; it's not like discovering such crud via google is going to convert an otherwise reasonable person into a rabid bigot. Also, the first two google hits I got were sane ones. On the second one I learned that being a Jew is a result of a SpeechAct? rather than of belief, which makes sense, but I hadn't known before, and contrasts with many other religions and philosophies.

Or how googling for god takes you to an mp3. . .

"... Where has Google gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him--you and I. ..."

MicrosoftCorporation is trying hard to break GoogleKnowsEverything. There are now private newsgroups (e.g. WindowsXp SP2 RCx) that are none of Google's business. Watch out, Google, hordes of MicrosoftSlaves are constructing siege machines near your kingdom (in mid 2004 speculation is rampant that Microsoft is targeting Google).

Microsoft puts a robots.txt on their newsgroups, it MUST BE A CONSPIRACY. I dub thee a MicroKook.

See: GoogleLovesWiki