Fool Me Once
April Fools’ Day, it seems safe to say, is Google’s favorite holiday. But the company has never built a version of the search engine that’s April Fools’-centric. Philipp Lenssen stepped up to the plate with Google April Fool’s. The darn thing works–and it’s a good way to search for info on Google’s own hoaxes. It’s got results for me, too–though none, as far as I can see, that mention the fact that I was born on April second.

Google Reads Your Mind
Google figures out what we’re searching for so cleverly that when you typo a search request, it can usually tell. But this “Did you mean” feature can’t always figure out your intentions. Enter GooogIe–that next-to-last letter is an upper-case “i”–which lets you create your own Google search results pages with any “Did you mean” suggestion you choose. It’s good, nerdy fun, and I apologize to the good folks in Oak Park, Illinois for the same page I created, seen below.

Russian Roulette
Google’s name is a reference to the number known as a googol (that’s 10000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,
0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000 to you and me). Gogol is named in tribute to Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, author of Diary of a Madman. And its algorithm is just as advanced as Google’s, in its own way.  Enter your search terms, press the “I’m Feeling Unlucky” button, and you’ll get…a random Web page. One that likely has absolutely nothing to do with what you searched for. Clever! Useless! Addictive!

This I know: There’s a lot more than another decade of Google to come. And I truly hope that there are many more Bizarro Googles in its future…

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