google wildword

March 5, 2003 10:46 AM

Neat stuff I didn't know about Google: it can tell me about interesting websites, it can tell me where the stock market is going, and it can give me ideas for music to buy. It can even predict my future! via BoingBoing, indirectly
posted by luser (12 comments total)

is this ironic? i have a horrible feeling i've missed something obvious - those just seem to be google searches using a fixed string (is the point the wild-card character? if so, they're bad examples because it isn't going to change anything at either end of a string (is it?!)). all i can find on boingboing is a mention of a book about google (which seems to be listed because the authors are acquaintances - the link isn't very interesting).

maybe it's a pomo tribute to all those links to google we used to get here? or an attempt to discredit bb by repeating the worst links?
posted by andrew cooke at 11:20 AM on March 5, 2003

*cough*
posted by Su at 11:21 AM on March 5, 2003

Exactly.
posted by yhbc at 11:25 AM on March 5, 2003

I, ...
posted by jamespake at 11:49 AM on March 5, 2003

I thought your link would be a new take on this Wired story about how to find hidden databases, but it turns out it's just a really, really, really bad post.

Did I miss something?
posted by gramcracker at 11:50 AM on March 5, 2003

No pomo. I didn't know you could wildcard words in google. Thought others might also have not known. Thought wrong apparently. I still rule! You can't take that away from me!

sobs and runs away
posted by luser at 11:57 AM on March 5, 2003

does the wildcard do anything in these queries? I think google treats all queries as having wildcards on both sides. is there a way to indicate beginning or end of a string? that would be more interesting.
posted by alkupe at 12:05 PM on March 5, 2003

There are about 8 interesting websites!
posted by TurkishGolds at 12:08 PM on March 5, 2003

where's the porno tribute? I didn't see it in any of the links.

Oh wait, you typed pomo
posted by milnak at 12:40 PM on March 5, 2003

All is forgiven, luser - you can come back now. Any FPP than contains or references Google can't be all bad, after all.
posted by davidmsc at 12:40 PM on March 5, 2003

alkupe, the only way to indicate the end of a wildcard is to put a word after it, (or before it, to indicate the beginning) because google does allow wilcards inside the query phrase.

For example, a more interesting query than jamespake's, above, would be:

"i for one welcome our new * overlords" -insect

which gets you all the other kinds of overlords people have been welcoming.
posted by luser at 12:47 PM on March 5, 2003

Well, okay then. That actually is a more interesting search result.
posted by yhbc at 12:54 PM on March 5, 2003