Play Things : Google

The unbearable truthiness of Google Suggest

Sidin Vadukut — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:19:00 GMT

Earlier today @rashmid sent me an image via Twitter. About Twitter:

This is a grab from a simple Google Search page. Type in a term into the box and Google automatically tries to guess what you are looking for. Mostly based on content online and previous search histories. It throws up a list with a corresponding estimate of how many results are available for each suggested search term. As you can there are a fair number of people who look upon Twitter less than favourably.

This suddenly sparked a thought in my head. Isn't Google's suggestions then something of a clandestine barometer of public sentiment on various topics? Will we get such wonderful insight into other popular topics if we did the same, i.e. type in a term followed by "is" and a space and then wait for the search engine to suggest?

PlayThings is proud to showcase the outcome of our comprehensive review of several such popular concepts using the windsock of social sentiment that is Google suggestions:

p.s. Not one of the images have been doctored. They are exactly as they appeared on my browser. Do play around with Google suggestions yourself and drop us a line if you find any hilarious ones.

p.p.s. AR Rahman IS malayalee

p.p.p.s. Gordon Brown is my shepherd as well.

Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

CSI Dwarka: What WAS Rahul Gandhi reading?

Sidin Vadukut — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:00:00 GMT

Merely moments ago my dear friend and colleague Samanth Subramaniam blogged about the reading habits of politicians, Indian and otherwise. His post is plenty fun to read. So please do. (You must understand that more web traffic to the livemint blogs leads to happier bosses, leads to pleasanter top-level meetings, leads to bonuses. I am just saying.)

At the end of that post Samanth threw open a web search challenge which I decided to enthusiastically pick up.

He posted a picture of Rahul Gandhi and wondered what book the young Congressman was reading.

(Photo courtesy: AP)

Later, in an update, Samanth announced that a perusal of the photo in high magnification yielded two fragments of prose from the page:

I received a hugely enlarged version of the Rahul Gandhi image a couple of minutes ago, detailed enough to spot a few phrases on the right-hand page of the book he is reading. It seems to be about the origins of the kibbutz culture in Israel, and the text -- "Jews from Caesarea" and "a kibbutz was set up in 1942" -- proves unGoogleable. Guesses, anyone?

This, of course, is exactly the sort of challenge readers of Play Things relish. First we didn't Google just like that. Oh no. We searched within Google Books for matches. A search for the phrase "Jew from Caesarea" yielded 26 results. This was a little surprising. I had expected that, of the two phrases, this one to be obscure. No matter. Next we searched Google Books for "a kibbutz was set up in 1942".

Et voila!. We got exactly one result. Martin Gilbert's 1998 book: "Israel: A history".

But wait. Did the book have the other phrase as well. We searched again but this time with the keywords chosen carefully: "Jews from Caesarea" and "Martin Gilbert".

Ka-boom!. We got exactly one result again. MARTIN GILBERT'S 1998 BOOK: "ISRAEL: A HISTORY"!

But wait again. We needed to check exactly one more thing. Samanth clearly indicates that both phrases appear on the same side of the book. Only one way to prove that. Search books with both phrases in quotes. And KA-POW we discover that both phrases appear on page 113 of Martin Gilbert's book. Thus Play Things, using just a few sessions on Book Search, had cracked the secret of Rahul Gandhi's mysterious book.

(Photo courtesy: Amazon)

From Wikipedia:

Martin Gilbert, (born 1936)[1] is a British historian and the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history. He has been a pioneer of historical atlases, and is best known as the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill.

Also can we point out that Mr. Gandhi is probably using a Blackberry Curve by the looks of things? (On the sill to his left.) Most probably a 8310 Curve with GPS. Going by the silver casing and the little rectangular power button.

Now comes the key question. Why is Mr. Gandhi reading a book on Israel? Leave your conspiracy theories in the comments below.

Note to right-wing hawks: This blog is impartial. We will try to figure what any leader from any party is reading. Just you email me the pictures on sidin.v@livemint.com.

Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

Gmail goes offline - Why it matters...

Sidin Vadukut — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:19:00 GMT

The blogosphere is abuzz with a recent announcement on the Gmail blog. After some speculation, Google has finally come out with the fact that offline access to Gmail is being rolled out to English language users of the ubiquitous communication platform in the days to come. Like most Gmail tweaks offline access needs to be activated from the Labs tab on your Gmail settings page and will use Google Gears to work:

Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you're connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail's servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer's hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you're used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.

In other words it works like your Outlook Express probably does when you are on a plane, in a hotel without wifi (boo!) and so on.

This is a thrilling development on several fronts. And even though I have never managed to get Google Gears to work for me hiccup-free on any platform, I still think that there is plenty here for people to think about. Before you pooh pooh this away as yet another geek-nerd thing here is why Gmail going offline can be a game-changer:

1. Outlook Express and Lotus Notes needs to up their game: Both those popular platforms may be decent desktop clients, but their online avatars are both terrible in comparison to Gmail's User Interface. If I was a corporate email user without significant privacy hassles I would just autoforward all my email to a dedicated Gmail account and then sync it with my desktop using Google Gears. This way I have an offline archive of my emails which is a snap to access and, most importantly, search. And of course in an interface which I am already very familiar with. And remember: even if you don't have your laptop with you, your Gmail account is still available online, always.

2. Google Apps plus Gmail Offline: Small business, educational institutions and the like have one more reason to move to the Google Apps platform. My experience with convincing people to do this has often hit two roadblocks: security and portability. Your emails sit on a Google server and two, if I am not online I can't access my email. (Which is why some people set up Gmail on Google Apps and then POP3 it out to Outlook Express.) With offline access and syncing this is no longer a hassle. Your email is online and offline in one single interface which intelligently goes online and off.

3. One more step towards a Google Operating System: Google, which already had a web-enabled back-end, is now migrating that piece by piece to a desktop front-end environment via the browser. Right now you can have documents, email and an rss feed reader accessible offline and online via Google Gears. Sounds awfully like a little operating system to me. But one where ALL the data resides on a Google server. The next big step for Google is to convince you that your data is as safe on a Google server as it is on your laptop. From Wired:

It’s one thing to trust your e-mail to Google, it’s another thing to trust the company with the entirety of your digital life. Forget problems of security and privacy, even the basic issue of server downtime leaves many people cold.

And even if the fabled Google Drive does finally make an appearance soon, we are still some way away from using lithe netbooks with just a browser, little flash drives and wifi connections that tap into our vast online Google Drives checking our Gmail, editing on Google Docs, updating our Google Calendars and reading our Google Readers feeds.

It won't happen soon. But it probably will happen.

P.S. To quote a crabby, cynical CEO I knew once: "Then one day those Google bastards will ask you to pay up for everything. And then we are all dead!"

Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

Obama still a "miserable failure", says Yahoo

Sidin Vadukut — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:06:00 GMT

Just one moment before you leave heated, right of centrist, liberal comments. I am not referring to his performance. Obama's been President just for a few days and I am sure we will get plenty of chances to make digs at his presidency in the days to some.

Instead I am referring to another complicated, sucky legacy item from the Bush administration that the Obamatons will have to take care of, in addition to two wars, at least two prisons of dubious distinction, General Motors and international infamy.

Keen tube-surfers will remember the "miserable failure" conundrum of years past when entering the phrase "miserable failure" into a Google search box and clicking "I feel lucky" automatically took you to the profile page of George W. Bush at the White House website. This was the result of some concerted Googlebombing by Bush-haters. Danny Sullivan explains:

...a search for miserable failure on Google would bring up the official George W. Bush biography. This was due to a “Googlebomb” where many people had linked to his biography using those words in their links.

Eventhough Google took care of that problem, it appears that searches on Yahoo still list the presidential biography first if you search for that phrase. I was alerted by another Danny Sullivan piece today. And gave it a go:

Click on the first link and it takes you to Obama's profile page. What fun!

Here is Sullivan's piece-***-rant-***-solution to the problem. Rest assured that people at Yahoo will soon take care of this problem. In the meanwhile do Yahoo up "miserable failure" in the office and share the joy around while you still can.

Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

Gmail goes bling, Pageflakes goes cheap

Sidin Vadukut — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:47:00 GMT

Gmail, along with most Google products, was all about being minimal and quick. But today we logged into our email account only to find that Gmail was now offering ways of personalizing your account with themes. Yes colours, images, patterns and what have you. If you can't access these options yourself then just click on the setting link on the top right of your Gmail screen and then look for the last option on the list of choices.

More details here on the official Gmail blog.

What are we using? The seaside theme localized for Mumbai, India. (Yes some of the themes localize as well. How Google is that?) But to be honest I've been looking all over Gmail screen and I haven't seen a single bhutta or chaat-wallah yet. And no Mumbai sea-scene is complete without them.

Pageflakes via kwout

Also subtley dropping in additions today was Pageflakes, the online content aggregation *** start page service, like iGoogle and Netvibes, which we migrated to a year or so ago. The service never really took off and the creators sold it off to LiveUniverse a while ago. Perhaps the new owners have decided to commercialize things. Now every tab on the Pageflakes page has a big fat Google Ads block on the top left.

It sucks. One gets so used to the location of ones gaming and tech RSS feed flakes. And now suddenly its 5 ways to get a flat belly. Sigh.

Now we need to run and change our Gmail theme back to the usual. Our eyes have begun to hurt.

Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

Baba Ramdev: The Google Chrome connection

Sidin Vadukut — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:25:00 GMT

Have you guys noticed how despite the "global credit meltdown", the Iceland economy falling to pieces and such maladies, geeks continue to spend with gay abandon? In complete deviation from perhaps every other sector on the face of the planet, geekery has been particularly productive of late. New browsers, new mobile phones and smartphones, television sets and laptops are being released into the market, and subsequently into welcoming, miles-long-line-forming, cash paying consumers at the rate of knots.

And lets not even get started about all those online Web 2.0 startups.

Perhaps what Bernanke, Paulson and Kashkari probably should have done is bundle a free iPhone with every 10,000 dollars worth of toxic sub prime mortgages. Geeks would have happily picked up the financial detritus, and then blogged about it on their phones. And of course helped the world at large.

What Gordon Gekko should have really said is this:

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that geek -- for lack of a better word -- is good.

Geek is right.

Geek works.

Geek clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit in full HD video.

Geek, in all of its forms -- geek for iPhones, for Google, for portable sub-notebooks with SSD hard drives, for Wikipedia -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.

And geek -- you bookmark my blog -- will not only save the Global Economy, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. And because decoupling is a stupendously dimwit idea... also the rest of the world.
Thank you very much for listening to this podcast.

But of course all of you know that Wall Street largesse brought us this mess. So perhaps even too much of geek is a bad idea too. And don't just take out word for it... Baba Ramdev thinks so too. Check this image we received from an intrepid reader fresh from the streets of Gurgaon:

Ok, now leave us alone while we do some deep breathing.

Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

What does the Internet think of you?

Krish Raghav — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:19:00 GMT

So…yeah. Hi.

My name is Krish Raghav, and I’ll be your friendly neighbourhood co-blogger on Play Things with Mr. Sidin.

I fumbled around on the Internet a bit to see what I could say by way of an introduction (I’m terrible at those) - Then I figured I could just use the good old ways, and ask others to introduce me instead!

Meet my recommendation-letter-writers: Google and soon-to-be-Google Cuil.

Searching for your own name (and your friends!) on search engines is an insanely fun past-time, one significantly improved by how common your name/surname is. (A quick litmus test is to see if there’s an Orkut community for people with your name)

Anyways. I typed in my name, without quotes, into the search boxes, and…well, discovered facts about myself I never knew existed.

According to Google, I am, among other things

-   A center back for team ‘Savage Storm’ in the YSA Ambuja Cement Mini Soccer League (2003)
-   A training academy for company secretaries in Lucknow
-   The protagonist of a short story where I'm running away or something (The two line preview in Google was tantalizingly suspenseful)

A Google Image search was quickly abandoned when it brought up images of Hrithik Roshan from the unfortunately named ‘Krrish’, a 2000 pixel wide map of Chennai, and images of strange, bearded people.

I moved on to Cuil. Surely, being new and inexperienced, it had a much more…coherent opinion.

Cuil was much more direct. Much more confident. Cuil thought I was Rajdeep Sardesai.

Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

The next Google?

Sidin Vadukut — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:35:00 GMT

Yes. What a desperate-for-traffic headline that is?

But tis true. The internets are ablaze with rumours of a new competitor Google that may finally not go bankrupt a few minutes after the press conference.

This is what Webware has to say:

There's a big new search engine launching Monday: Cuil. Developed and run by the husband-and-wife team of Stanford professor Tom Costello and former Google search architect Anna Patterson, it's pitched as bigger, faster, and better than Google's flagship search engine in pretty much every way.

However I must immediately say that I have seen a number of Google-wannabes sprout up over the last many years and sink without trace shortly thereafter. For instance there was Alltheweb that promised to be bigger than Google (more pages, or more links or more something or the other). All to no avail. Alltheweb is now a part of Yahoo by the look of things.

I gave Cuil (pronounced "Cool") a trial and the results were pretty pathetic. Way off target in terms of accuracy and relevance. Comments on the Webware post seem to share that view:

Extremely poor search results. Some queries got "no results" when same query
on Google got over a million hits.

Google could use some competition. Competition. With a capital C. Cuil is currently way short of making anyone at the Googleplex call emergency meetings. Perhaps they (Cuil) will get better with time.

But perhaps they won't.

I am a committed Googler. What your favourite/secret/embarassing search engine of choice?

Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!