Trying to find an answer to a question, I put "words" into Google. With 572,000,000 results, guess who comes up on the very first page? Our very own arnie!

I am jealous!

Good for Arnie! Apostrophe Protection Society! I'm glad somebody's looking out for this helpless little punctuation mark!

Wordmatic

I just get an empty Google search page when I click that link.

Like Arnie, I only get a blank page. Putting in the search term "words" doesn't find Arnie or the APS on page one - although our respected Michael Quinion is there.

But on page two I found this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...in_the_United_States - Very useful for Americans puzzled by such sentences as, "Sounds a bit dodgy to me - a lorry stopped on a roundabout and all the artics just queueing up without anyone whingeing? I'll have to suss it out - maybe his handbrake was buggered."

I was at work when I followed that link first of all. Now I'm at home I see what I imagine Richard saw, Google results for the word "words". I can't see anything related to me or the APS in the first half-dozen pages, though.

I took a look at that Wikipedia page containing the list of British words not widely used in the US. I can see why it has the warning at the top "This article or section has multiple issues". Many of the claims are actually urban legends or just plain wrong. There are several other unlikely claims that I suspect are wrong, as well. Note the sort of page to give one any confidence in Wikipedia!

In my link arnie's picture is on the first page.

I've actually tried cutting and pasting the full link but it just redirects automatically to the google homepage.

I don't see arnie's picture on the first page of results, but there are some pics of microscopic bacillus. I supstitued ".co.uk" in the URL for ".com" and get this different results page (]link). Still no arnie. We have discussed this before. Google results are a moving target. Different results occur when the country of origin is different, as in this case, and different results can be retrieved based on the fact that the results are based on Google's snapshot of the Web at the time of the search. (Also, Google fiddles and tweaks results based on all kinds of criteria, political (as in the case of China in the news recently) and possibly on your cached Google search history. bout the only way to ensure that folks will see your results is to take a screen snapshot and post a link to that.

And the craziest thing of all, which US members may not have noticed, is that if you live in another country putting www.google.com into the address bar automatically redirects you to your local versions - for me www.google.co.uk. This is a major annoyance until you figure out the workaround (which is to use www.google.com/intl/en/).

I have absolutely no idea why Microsoft thought this was a good idea.

I have absolutely no idea why Microsoft thought this was a good idea.

Is that an example of British humour? Microsoft does not own Google. The redirection happens on the Google end of the URL, i.e., at the servers, not in the client (browser) on the host OS (M$).

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
I have absolutely no idea why Microsoft thought this was a good idea.

Is that an example of British humour? Microsoft does not own Google. The redirection happens on the Google end of the URL, i.e., at the servers, not in the client (browser) on the host OS (M$).

No, it's an example of someone who has had a very long day during inspection and whose brain had a momentary spasm. It doesn't alter the fact that it's a really crap idea.

When I clicked on the link I found this: http://www.wordspy.com/

So nobody but me sees arnie's sweet face when they go to this link...or if you put "words" into Google? That is so strange. Every time I click the link I see the same thing.

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So nobody but me sees arnie's sweet face when they go to this link...or if you put "words" into Google?

No, but I do see this face. That's not arnie, is it?

That is so strange. Every time I click the link I see the same thing.

That's funny. I went to the Google home page and typed in words and hit the Search button. Down towards the bottom of the page I saw the picture of several of my friends. Then I looked above those results and saw "Results from people in your social circle for words - BETA - My social circle - My social content". It seems that Google has a new feature. After the usual ghits, it has this new place where it searches amongst folks you know or visit, etc.

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has this new place where it searches amongst folks you know or visit, etc.

That's called Heaven, I believe.

It's not referring to Google Buzz by any chance? That's being rolled out to GMail users at the moment; I saw it for the first time today. I've seen nothing yet in Google search yet, though. Perhaps that's not available to everyone yet.

I looked at the foot of my results page for "words" and the feature mentioned by zmj isn't there (at least, not yet).

It was plain and simple Google that I went to. I did not go to the "view customizations" or to Buzz.

As for Buzz, my daughter was quite irritated that she already is following me on Buzz, even though she had done nothing to do so. I, on the other hand, was quite annoyed that I only have 4 people following me, though I am following (not of my own volition!) 15 people, including several Wordcrafters and a few rather strange selections, in my opinion. I wonder how they decided.

From my link above:

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Automatically follow the people you email and chat with the most in Gmail.

EDIT: They also seem to use people you are following in Google Reader.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

It's not referring to Google Buzz by any chance?

Well, I hadn't noticed it before, and it's roll-out seems to be coterminous with GBuzz. I am not on Buzz right now, as I read a bunch of negative reviews and haven't had a chance to investigate it further. The special section on the first page of ghits (at the bottom of the page) says: "Results from people in your social circle for sub pontio pilato - BETA - My social circle - My social content". And, clicking on the main link takes me to a new space called Social, so I can only imagine that it is connected with Google Buzz.

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Results from people in your social circle for sub pontio pilato

Towards the foot of the search results page I see "News results for words", "Blog posts about words", and "Book results for words". I don't see anything about my social circle.

Was "sub pontio pilato" your search term?

EDIT: Found something - from the Google blog.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

Was "sub pontio pilato" your search term?

Yes. I twas the opera I wrote the libretto for, and I knew that I have emailed my friend composer a lot using my gmail account. Priming the pump.

EDIT: Found something - from the Google blog.

That's it, arnie. You've found them out.

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I read a bunch of negative reviews and haven't had a chance to investigate it further.

What have you heard? I rather like it, but I don't think it will take off. There is just too much out there that's like it.