"The Bible is a remarkable fountain: the more one draws and drinks of it, the more it stimulates thirst."
- Martin Luther
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Ever heard of a googlewhack?
From the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly*:
What may sound like a web-based hitman service is actually a game in which you type a two-word phrase into the popular search engine seeking to find one and only one hit in return. It's harder than you think.
"Dork Turnspit," "Pomegranate Filibusters," and "Hydroids Souvlaki"? All Googlewhacks. "Prosthetic Vassal"? Nope -- it yielded about 40 sites.
Googlewhacking might have remained obscure but for British comedian Dave Gorman, who became obsessed with the game while procrastinating on writing a novel. Following a drunken New Year's Eve wager, Gorman, 33, set out to meet the owners of 10 Googlewhacked websites, including a Columbus, Ohio, prog-rock enthusiast whose site (mysteriously) includes the words ammonite and googolplex. Gorman traveled over 90,000 miles in eight weeks, producing enough material for an Off Broadway show (opening next month) and the book Dave Gorman's Googlewhack! Adventure (Overlook, $24.95).
I thought this sounded like fun. And how hard it can be? So I gave it a few whirls to see how close I could come to a Googlewhack.
felonious muenster -- Whoa. 18 sites. Better try again.
supralapsarian thyroid -- Hmm. 15 hits.
misanthrope Coulier -- Oo, 2 sites. Getting close!
clandestine transubstantiationism -- Eek. Zero sites. Went too far.
pleiades underdog -- Yikes. 111 sites. I stink.
octagonal dispensationalism -- Bingo! 1 hit.
Of course, now that I've blogged all these phrases on this site, I may have thrown my Googlewhack out of, um, whack.
You play! It's fun!
* EW article not available online.
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Comments on "Play the Googlewhack Game":
2. Jared
- 09/15/2004 11:01 am CDT
I don't know. That's a good question.
I'm inclined to think that the words must be spelled correctly, but it's not like every web-published document is empty of misspellings.
You've got 1 with an asterisk. ;-)
4. salguod
- 09/15/2004 11:45 am CDT
Hmmm. I seem to have botched my HTML. Let em try again (BTW - the phrase is "transmissionary redundancy" in case I botch it again):
transmissionary redundancy
6. Jared
- 09/15/2004 11:51 am CDT
Man, and you know what's frustrating about this game, is when you think for sure you've got one, only to find out you're way wrong.
"mythopoeic bikini"? -- 90 sites.
7. Jared
- 09/15/2004 11:54 am CDT
Wow, it's equally fascinating to find lots of sites that actually have the weird combos.
"lycanthropic homunculus" -- 31 sites
8. Manders
- 09/15/2004 1:42 pm CDT
"Supralapsarian toenail" works. (Yes, believe it or not, there is a result for that.)
12. DLE
- 09/15/2004 7:30 pm CDT
chartreuse spit
Got it on my second try (the first was "chartreuse spittle" - no hits.)
13. Shrode
- 09/16/2004 2:18 am CDT
Do the rules say whether or not you are allowed to use quotes. It seems to me that could help your results.
14. Jared
- 09/16/2004 2:36 am CDT
What do you mean by quotes? Something somebody said once?
It has to be two words, so if you can think of a two word quote that might only yield one result, give it a try.
15. KJS
- 09/16/2004 6:51 am CDT
I think Shrode means putting quote marks around the seach words to limit the search only to the occurrence of the two words together. For example, if I put in green ball, the search would look for all occurrences of "green" and "ball." A hit might have "green" in one paragraph and "ball" in the next. But if I put in "green ball", the search would look only for occurrences of the phrase, "green ball.";"0
16. Bill
- 09/16/2004 7:43 am CDT
Shrode, that would be unethical.
By the way, "unethical shrode" typed into Google (sans quotes) yields 6 hits
20. salguod
- 09/17/2004 6:26 am CDT
I'm sitting at my desk and trying not to laugh out loud. "chartreuse spit"? "unethical shrode"? "breastfed monopod"? "vehicular meterosexual"? Hilarious!
21. salguod
- 09/17/2004 6:30 am CDT
BTW - Does one's result become disqualified if (like mine) the single link is dead? :-)
BTW2 - The text for links in the comments popup with today's 7 Samurai skin dissapear when I hover my mouse over them. Doesn't happen on the main site nor for the comments in a permalink. Don't know about other skins.
22. Bill
- 09/17/2004 7:19 am CDT
Salgoud
I was hoping no one would notice that. I've got some problems (d'oh!) with the comments popup - the one you're describing is what I've also seen - very easy to fix but I just haven't taken the time.
23. TulipGirl
- 09/17/2004 9:49 am CDT
After I showed this to Hubby, he pointed out that I misspelled metrosexual.
Whoops. *blush*
25. Halfbake
- 02/23/2005 1:51 am CST
I typed 'turspit antidisestablishmentarianism' & got this site as a Googlewhack!!!!!!
27. techling
- 03/31/2005 5:35 pm CST
terranova egregiousness
(took six tries, but what satisfaction!)
http://werc.wi.gov/grievance_awards/5144.pdf
31. Breast Enhancement
- 09/29/2006 5:39 pm CDT
Okay... I read the Blog Nice site I found and I bookmarked the site... Plan on coming back later to spend a little time there.
Does this count?
"octogenarian flugalhorn"
"flugalhorn" is spelled wrong. But it did result in a single hit (and helpful questions about whether I meant "flugelhorn")
Does that pass the test?