Why are my suggestions so single minded?

I use Google as my default search engine in Firefox. When you start typing in the search box, you get a list of suggestions that you can click on to complete your search. Tonight I happened to type the phrase “why are my” and the following list of suggestions came back:

  • why are my breasts sore
  • why are my nipples sore
  • why are my cookies flat
  • why are my feet always cold
  • why are my eyes red
  • why are my ears ringing
  • why are my eyes yellow
  • why are my gums bleeding
  • why are my hands so cold
  • why are my breasts tender

I’m not sure how the little Google widget determines what suggestions to proffer. I speculate that it’s based on the most common searches and apparently the world is suffering from an outbreak of sore boobies, cold extremities, and baking problems.

Just for fun I tried a search beginning with “what the heck is” and got the following suggestions:

  • what the heck is emo
  • what the heck is an antibiotic
  • what the heck is a virus
  • what the heck is penicillin
  • what the heck is a maverick
  • what the heck is electronic mail
  • what the heck is aggregate demand
  • what the heck is happening

The oddest item in the list was the suggested query about “electronic mail”. This one makes me believe that may the suggestions aren’t based on the most common searches. I mean how many people out there are really tech savvy enough to do a Google search but aren’t tech savvy enough to know what email is? And what’s with the phrase “electronic mail”? I wonder if the person that searched for “electronic mail” typed in the search on their “personal computer” while watching their “digital video disc” on their “high definition television”?

3 comments

  1. Why are my cookies flat?

    Is this a euphemism? Because after reading the first two queries and then getting to this one, I did the ol’ snort diet coke out the nose laugh.

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