By Chris Sherman
Associate Editor, SearchEngineWatch.com
And now for something completely different: 'Googlewhacking' is a new competitive sport that tests both your searching skills and your mastery of language -- and it's catching on like wildfire!
Google's index of web pages is generally regarded as the largest of all the major search engines. This means that for most searches, it's not uncommon for the Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine to report millions or even tens of millions of pages containing your search terms.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, there are combinations of keywords that return only one single result on Google. Web entrepreneur, online commentator and gadfly Gary Stock is obsessed with finding these combinations. So much so that he's created a game, complete with rules, that he calls "Googlewhacking."
In essence, Googlewhacking is simple. Simply try to find those elusive combinations of search terms that are so rare they return a single result on Google. According to Stock, "The sweetest words ever returned are 'Results 1 - 1 of 1.'
For example:
"microsoft crenelation"
"orchestrator bamboozling"
"metronome dewpoint"
"plectrum irradiation"
Stock lays out the rules for keeping score: One point for a pure googlewhack, meaning a single result for your query; one point if you learn something; and a bonus point if you "laugh even more" at the results. The irony of Googlewhacking, however, is that success actually breeds failure, so to speak, for when you find a whack and report it online, that page will soon be crawled by Google and the Googlewhack will lose its uniqueness.
Stock also suggests that Googlewhacking can be used for faux research projects, answering such previously unanswerable metaphysical questions as:
What did the Sumerians see in those pictographs?
cuneiform meatspace
What's the only way to defeat both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan at once?
octopi jujitsu
What does Linus Torvalds consider his greatest achievement?
eponymic linux
Stock says that his higest hope is to call up Google's "Zeitgeist" page and see the following:
Top 5 Gaining Queries
Week Ending Jan. 28, 2002
1. parsnips
2. carburetor
3. trombones
4. schadenfreude
5. yams
"When 'asparagus' replaces 'britney' in the top ten (truly 'The Battle of The Spears') my work will be done," he says.
Say this for Stock's new sport: it's one of the wackiest ideas to capture the imagination of Google users in a long time.
If you are still unclear on the concept and basic rules, you can check out this Googlewhacking: Concept and Basic Rules site.
And for the true maniacs of Googlewhacking, yes there is a place for you also on the Web.
