151. Google Questions
Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson
Luke Thompson
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2013
⏱️ 56 minutes
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Summary
Luke answers some common auto-completed questions from Google. Hi listeners. Do you know what "Google auto-complete" is? You know when you start to google something, like maybe 'why is Luke's English Podcast so awesome?' and when you type 'why is', Google completes your question with lots of options? Those options are 'auto-completes'. It's when Google predicts your search based on frequently asked searches. Try typing "why is" into Google. It will give you some options, like "why is the sky blue?" Some auto-completes are quite fascinating, because they make you think "why are people asking these crazy questions?" or "that's a good question - what's the answer?"
Episode page: https://teacherluke.co.uk/2013/10/25/151-google-questions/
Some Google auto-completes are really deep, if you take the time to consider them. Have a look at this graphic, which was produced by xkcd http://xkcd.com/1256/ It is a montage of auto-completed questions from Google. I also posted the image on Facebook recently, herehttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153357182265508&set=pb.227129545507.-2207520000.1383244673.&type=3&theater Here's a link to the Adweek.com article about women's rights I mentioned too http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/powerful-ads-use-real-google-searches-show-scope-sexism-worldwide-153235 In this episode I decided to try giving my answers to these Google auto-complete questions. You can listen to my answers in this episode, but I'm also interested in your opinions and your findings from google searches. Your task while listening to this is to Google the questions and check the results. Are my answers correct? Leave a comment below to give me your opnions. I hope you enjoy the episode. Cheers, Luke
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Luke's English podcast. For more information visit teacher Luke. |
| 0:05.8 | WordPress.com. |
| 0:10.1 | Hello everyone. Welcome to Luke's English podcast and let's see what's this episode all about |
| 0:16.9 | well recently I posted onto Facebook a picture and the picture was a kind of summary of lots and lots of questions which people |
| 0:28.0 | have discovered on Google Auto Complete. |
| 0:33.0 | All right, so let me just explain the situation. |
| 0:35.0 | What is Google Auto Complete? |
| 0:37.0 | Well, you know when you go on Google, okay? |
| 0:40.0 | You go on to Google and you want to search for something and you might type in a couple of letters or a couple of words and you get a load of options appearing below the search bar and those options are like what Google thinks that maybe you're looking for. |
| 0:56.4 | So it completes your search with previously searched for items. |
| 1:02.4 | So if you for example type in why is then one of those autocomplete |
| 1:09.4 | options will be why is the sky blue why is the sky blue? And so Google is like suggesting you know completed |
| 1:18.0 | versions of your question meaning are you looking for this question for |
| 1:21.2 | example why is the sky blue you might be looking for example why is the sky blue you might be looking for why is |
| 1:25.6 | Luke's English podcasts so awesome but if you type in why is it'll say why is the |
| 1:31.1 | sky blue and those autocomplete suggestions are basically based on |
| 1:38.6 | very very common searches so it seems that why is the sky blue is a very, very common search. |
| 1:46.0 | So if you just type in why is, why is the sky blue? |
| 1:49.0 | It seems that lots and lots and lots of people have searched for why is the sky blue. That's why it comes up as |
| 1:54.8 | one of the options because those are the most common questions that begin with why is. |
| 2:00.7 | Now this is pretty interesting. This is actually pretty interesting because it gives you a little insight into |
| 2:07.8 | the kinds of questions that people are searching for online. Now it does depend where you are, for example if you're using the American version of Google it will complete |
... |
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