JUDGMENT
humanplacebo ponders whether it is fair to judge society based on Google search suggestions for "how to use a":
1 Influenced by the immediate proximity of "protractor" next in the list, I initially though this referred to the circle-drawing tool2, but the entire first page of matches refers to the navigational instrument. In fact, if you search "how to use a compass", most of the top suggested completions ("without a map," "with a map," "and a map," "with a mirror", "degrees") refer to the navigational instrument, and only two suggested completions refer to the drafting tool, "to draw a circle" and "with a protractor". The remaining suggested completions are seeking types of content ("video," "youtube") or content targeted for certain audiences ("kids"). *
2 Which is technically "pair of compasses". Many other languages actually have entirely distinct words for the navigational instrument and the drafting tool. (languagehat has a better explication of the etymology of compass.)
* This started as a (parenthetical note) but quickly grew beyond the capabilities of such annotation; in fact, it expanded beyond even a single footnote, although this third footnote is meta about parentheticals vs. footnotes.
Out of curiosity, I tried a few other prompts...
how to use
how to
buy a
- condom
- tampon
- compass1
- protractor
- multimeter
- curling iron
- french press
- flash drive
- bidet
1 Influenced by the immediate proximity of "protractor" next in the list, I initially though this referred to the circle-drawing tool2, but the entire first page of matches refers to the navigational instrument. In fact, if you search "how to use a compass", most of the top suggested completions ("without a map," "with a map," "and a map," "with a mirror", "degrees") refer to the navigational instrument, and only two suggested completions refer to the drafting tool, "to draw a circle" and "with a protractor". The remaining suggested completions are seeking types of content ("video," "youtube") or content targeted for certain audiences ("kids"). *
2 Which is technically "pair of compasses". Many other languages actually have entirely distinct words for the navigational instrument and the drafting tool. (languagehat has a better explication of the etymology of compass.)
* This started as a (parenthetical note) but quickly grew beyond the capabilities of such annotation; in fact, it expanded beyond even a single footnote, although this third footnote is meta about parentheticals vs. footnotes.
Out of curiosity, I tried a few other prompts...
how to use
- a condom (the first of three repeats from "how to use a")
- excel (I'm kind of surprised that this is the most queried Office application)
- a tampon
- photoshop
- chopsticks
- torrents
- bittorrent (I wonder how high the combined "torrents" + "bittorrent" would rank)
- a compass
how to
- tie a tie (seriously? #1 suggested query for "how to?")
- kiss (that's a little depressing... or perhaps a little cute, depending on your outlook)
- get pregnant
- lose weight (depressingly, only halfway down the first page of results is where the scam sites begin... yay for SEO tactics)
- make a website
- write a resume
- draw
- solve a rubix cube [sic]
- write a cover letter
- get a passport
buy a
- car
- star (oy. Is "star" this high in the suggestions due to user naivete or insidious SEO?)
- used car
- business
- domain name
- monkey
- dog
- domain
- gun