I know google tracks and watches and pokes and pries. At work I have everything shut down as tightly as you like so all that is much reduced. I run adblock plus, ghostery, noscript, cookie monster, and so on. For one thing it makes "the internet" about 500% faster.
But at home on the ipad or iphone I don't bother, I let it the browser do its own thing.
Now, last night, we watched Jane Eyre, and jolly good it was too. Afterwards I typed into google my question - and it predicted it. I got as far as "Why couldn't M" and it offered "Why couldn't Mr Rochester divorce his wife".
Now that's ridiculous. How did it know I wanted to know that? I'd watched on the TV, not in any way that Google could know about, nor had I looked online in a tv guide and clicked on it or anything.
I tried again this morning in case it was a "everyone in the UK is searching for this" moment. It was the same at home.
But now I'm at work I've tried it again and get something completely different.
I'm not often awed by google's power but I'm baffled by that one.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Tue 24 Dec 13 at 08:27
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Ask these questions.
1/ How many people were watching Jane Eyre last night?
2/ How many of them were sat there with Laptops or Pads asking questions during the show.
given 1 & 2 above you get "whats hot" search responses.
Few people realise how much computing horsepower and storage Google have, they are very very secretive about their data centres.
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As above, it was the hot topic at the time, but not later on when you tried.
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What is intriguing about this is not Google but how predictable our actions actually are. We all think of ourselves as acting independently but in actual fact we don't. Our actions and indeed our speech and thought are to a large degree entirely predictable at a statistical level if perhaps not at an individual one.
It is this feature of human behaviour that Google and the advertising industry is able to tap into so successfully.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 24 Dec 13 at 10:24
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>> given 1 & 2 above you get "whats hot" search responses.
In that case it was still "hot" this morning on my idevices at home, but not "hot" 40 minutes later this morning on my work pc.
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>>
>> >> given 1 & 2 above you get "whats hot" search responses.
>>
>> In that case it was still "hot" this morning on my idevices at home, but
>> not "hot" 40 minutes later this morning on my work pc.
But that's not the question you asked. You asked how Google knew you were going to ask that question before you had.
Now you HAVE asked that question, its just a simple matter of history saved on your device.
Two completely different scenarios.
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I think history only works if you have Google web history turned on and are signed in, neither of which are so.
It matters not. I'll dig about and see if I can get a handle on it, when I've finished what I'm supposed to be doing this morning.
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>> I think history only works if you have Google web history turned on and are
>> signed in
No it doesn't. You have cookies, you have cache, you have prefetch,.you have numerous other fingerprints.
But hey, you are determined to unearth some devilish plot, so go ahead, be my guest. I can do you a very nice line in tin foil hats if you like.
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Never tangle with Zero on the subject of defining a question. He does not recognise the existence of implied or open-ended questions.
I was watching the Marx Bros "Go West" last night, and loved this gem:
Passenger in station concourse "Can you show me where the trains are please?"
Groucho "They generally run on the tracks. They seldom come in here"
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Tue 24 Dec 13 at 10:13
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Thanks for all your thoughts. I've drawn my own conclusions now from poking about on t'internet.
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>> Thanks for all your thoughts. I've drawn my own conclusions now from poking about on
>> t'internet.
Care to share them? You do realise that a; you can't trust whats on the internet and b: your poking about has left a trail back to you?
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 24 Dec 13 at 10:31
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>> Never tangle with Zero on the subject of defining a question. He does not recognise
>> the existence of implied or open-ended questions.
The problem is I do. Your problem is you don't ask them.
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I've got a Google related task. I need to push up a commercial site in their ratings as the search for what the type of business, and the town it's in return a competitors site with a page that makes one think the competitor is the nearest.
Made a quick change to the commercial site last night but I'll have to do more. (I've family connections to it).
Competitor has seriously played the Google game - but I can see what they've done. War has been declared!
Delibertly not said what either websites url is.
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The iPad / iPhone was secretly listening to you. Using Shazam type technology, it identified what you were watching and prepared the answers.
Now, where is my tin foil hat!?
:-)
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why do you think it has a mic and camera in it.......
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That auto thing they've just added to Shazam is interesting. Went Christmas shopping the other day with it "listening", and when I got back there was all sorts of music listed I wasn't even conscious I'd heard, never mind identified.
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It's all old technology. It was known decades ago that if you flashed a brief almost imperceptible image on someone's eye, they can be triggered by a repetition of the image in a shop to buy something they wouldn't otherwise have thought of.
And hotly deny it had happened.
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>> That auto thing they've just added to Shazam is interesting. Went Christmas shopping the other
>> day with it "listening", and when I got back there was all sorts of music
>> listed I wasn't even conscious I'd heard, never mind identified.
Ouch, sounds network hungry.
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Might be. Not a consideration for me, luckily. Never managed to even get to half my monthly allowance even thrashing it.
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What telly is it? Is it one of these? Mine is
www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/20/lg_smart_tv_data_collection/
Don't know if it would have been as smart as you implied if I use the internet through the telly though.
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A very dumb tv that has no connection ability.
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I get lots of young and very nubile women wanting to have sexual congress with me . I always assumed it was my personality and am distraught to think Google has a hand in it....
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When Google lists previous searches when guessing what you might be asking there's a Remove option next to them. If there's no remove option then it's Google guessing based on other searches.
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The almighty google - Zero
