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#54776 02/01/02 02:58 PM
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From the witty Jon @ silicon.com:

The latest game to sweep the web is called Googlewhacking.

The game involves searching Google's massive two-billion page database for two words that return a "Results 1 out of 1" message at the top of the page.

However, a Googlewhack doesn't remain one for long because players post the link on the game's website ensuring that it will consequently return two results.

All entries, or Googlefactors, must be verified via the dictionary.com website.

The Round-Up has better things to do than waste time playing silly games but for the record "portakabin monkey" got 30 hits, "Cheddar homunculus" got 10, while "slimy sandpaper" got a disappointing 712 - so it's not as easy as it sounds.

Click here http://www.silicon.com/a50923 to find out more - or to add any Googlewhackers you might find.

(If you play this game with your colleagues you get a fascinating, if occasionally frightening, insight into how their minds work. The silicon.com reporter who shouted: "I can't believe liquorice flagellation returns 29 results" is now being given a wide berth in the newsroom.)


Research team - go!


#54777 02/01/02 03:06 PM
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Had one of those just this morning, mav ... I don't want to register just for it so I give it to you free ... www.samstailor.com which is a tailor shop in Hong Kong which was subject of an article in today's email edition of the International Herald Tribune. (IHT.com) I Googled it and got just the one entry.


#54778 02/01/02 03:10 PM
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sorry, wow, no banana - the rules are "2 words with no punctuation" - it's a *lot harder than you might think. F'rinstance, Custard Gorilla nets something over 800 hits...

The Truth is out there but it's mixed up with a BIG pile of other shite!


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"2 words with no punctuation"

Let's clear up these rules a bit. <custard gorilla> yields 855 hits but <custard-gorilla> yields none. Treating them as separate words gives you any site that has both words in it. Hyphenating (or quotating) the phrase requires that they occur one right next to each other.

OK, I went to the site. After running my Brit-English translation engine I discovered that quotating (and therefore probably hyphenating) is illegal.


#54780 02/01/02 03:29 PM
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1 hit.


#54781 02/01/02 03:31 PM
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Not now you hit on her


#54782 02/01/02 04:18 PM
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you hit on her

Turns out she's juggling the four encephalitic bartenders.


#54783 02/01/02 04:21 PM
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four encephalitic bartenders

And a partridge in a pear tree.


#54784 02/01/02 04:23 PM
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That's a parsnip, Keiva. And it's in a pantry!


#54785 02/01/02 04:27 PM
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too easy:

esoteric adfenestration - 1 hit

(actually®, there are bunches of words that work with adfenestration -- the trick is to find one word which appears nowhere else -- and there may be a whole mess of those at the wwftd site 8)


#54786 02/01/02 04:32 PM
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yeahbut®

didja read the rules? are your entries in the specified dictionary? Rules? Rules? We do...


#54787 02/01/02 04:32 PM
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encephalitic - 1,980 hits
barmaid - 39,800 hits

These could be scored by multiplying the individual hit counts, giving me a score of 78,804,000.


#54788 02/01/02 04:37 PM
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barmaid - 39,800 hits

These could be scored...


heh! busy guy, Fong, busy guy.


#54789 02/01/02 04:50 PM
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The hit on <encephalitic barmaid> was in a review for a CD by the piano duo of Bruce Posner & Donald Garvelmann.



#54790 02/01/02 04:58 PM
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a CD by the piano duo of Bruce Posner & Donald Garvelmann

wow - I gotta get me a copy of *that one!


#54791 02/01/02 05:26 PM
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piano duo CD

You can find it real easy, mav. Just google <encephalitic barmaid>. It's the first hit.


#54792 02/01/02 05:43 PM
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Ok, Max give us a button to close the internet.. and Mav has search engines scouring the internet for esoteric odd ball hits, and things are slowing to a crawl..

or is just me? (mind you i now have a 1.5 GHz processor!)


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1 hit (and word-related)

also australopithecine kumquat
australopithecine plenipotentiary [appears in a list of all words of 15 or more letters]


#54794 02/01/02 05:54 PM
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#54795 02/01/02 05:56 PM
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honorificabilitudinity


Bzzzzzzz! No entry found for honorificabilitudinity in the dictionary.



#54796 02/01/02 05:58 PM
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No entry found for Quordlepleen in the dictionary.



#54797 02/01/02 06:09 PM
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#54798 02/01/02 06:22 PM
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Bzzzzzzz! No entry found for honorificabilitudinity in the dictionary.

Bzzzzzzz back! http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/longestword "For example, the medieval Latin word honorificabilitudinitas (honourableness) was listed by some old dictionaries in the English form honorificabilitudinity (22 letters), but it has never really been in use."

My all-time favorite poem, Barney McGee by Richard Hovey, uses that word. The poem unfortunately is not available on-line. I am tempted to recite ...

But faldage, if you have any doubt, substitute a variant form, in the phrase honorificabilitudinitatibus earlobes -- and you'll get a tremendous giggle by checking the site which that one hits. Surely you would not dispute that word? [thanks, tsuwm!]


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All entries, or Googlefactors, must be verified via the dictionary.com website.


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You did enjoy the hit, didn't you?

You want nits? Nit right back atcha:
must be verified VIA the dictionary.com website.

In dictionary.com, list the dictionaries which that site countenances (by subclicking to "Web Directory", thence "References", and thence "Dictionaries"). Among them click to "vocabulary lists" and, from those lists, select "Grandiloquent Dictionary", in which you will find the word in question. [scratching nits -e ]

#54801 02/01/02 07:00 PM
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collapsium artichoke
lutefisk echidna

Surprisingly (or maybe not so much...) budget regicide had 251 results. I thought I had a winner there. Rats.


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via the dictionary.com

That was from mav's rewriting. The googlewhack site itself says All words must appear on www.dictionary.com in order for your Googlewhacker to be valid. They got enough dictionaries on that site to choke a he hog. No, I think it's clear here that the intent of this rule is to exclude any words not found by entering them in the little box at the top of the page.



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The googlewhack site itself says ...
citation, please? Can't follow the newly-stated rules if I can't find them.

By the way, would a citation to a site be a "sitation"?


#54804 02/01/02 07:44 PM
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That's a keeper, Fibes. Scores 634,520,000!

Collapsium ain' on dictionary.com.


#54805 02/01/02 07:48 PM
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#54806 02/01/02 08:10 PM
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Respected faldage, your link immediately clicks over to a different URL, on which there's no such statment that I can find.

But per your new rule, wordsmith faldage, I can offer the above emphasized phases, plus hunk faldage Elizabeth, your choice!, or a host of other adjectival combinations. C'mon, friend; let's not suck the fun out of it!


#54807 02/01/02 08:27 PM
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link immediately clicks over to a different URL

Beats me. Doesn't do it for me. The rules, from the site:

The rules of Googlewhacking' are simple. Type two words into the search field on Google and hit 'Google Search'. If the search returns with 'Results 1 - 1 of 1' then you win. If it finds more than one site on which those two words appear, you don't.

To further complicate matters, you can't use inverted commas to limit your search, as the words can appear anywhere on the site. It's not as easy as it sounds.

.
.
.

All words must appear on www.dictionary.com in order for your Googlewhacker to be valid.




#54808 02/01/02 08:42 PM
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I submitted a few, but no word back yet.


c-a-l-l-i-p-y-g-e-a-n _____ i-n-u-n-d-a-t-i-o-n


q-o-t-i-d-i-a-n _____ b-l-o-v-i-a-t-i-o-n


i-n-v-i-g-o-r-a-t-i-n-g _____ o-m-p-h-a-l-o-s-k-e-p-s-i-s


It might be more interesting and perhaps more in the spirit of a word game to find pairs which are either complementary or ironic.

k


#54809 02/01/02 08:54 PM
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Ooh! I finally got one of my own!

colloidal regicide

(I knew regicide had to be a golden ticket one way or t'other!)

That's fun! Now I know where all the time I'm saving from the new AWAD server will be wasted...

Later... smocking apotheosis
See, I told you!
Later still... perambulatory isthmus
*Somebody* has found a new hobby...

#54810 02/01/02 09:12 PM
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This is, I presume, the gentle art of killing kings on the cheap?



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#54811 02/01/02 09:22 PM
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But of course!

You know, I'm seeing that even if the idea isn't a Google-whack winner (i.e. Budget Regicide, Corrugated Epiphany, Sophomoric Cuneiform, Flatulent Parallelogram, Trapeze Underpants), this is a fine way to come up with some really surreal band names.


#54812 02/01/02 09:31 PM
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or to start a new business, of course ...



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#54813 02/01/02 10:26 PM
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philanthropic octothorpe

bloviate timorously

escargot uvula returned 1- 1 of about 2. It only showed one result. What's that mean?

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On my second try...trilobite fricasee...deliberately misspelled here (sans one "s" so as to not add a hit).

Does this mean I WIN!...?(ahem)


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You already W'ON. straight-face for about 2 seconds-e


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I got one! by posting here, it should give me the one of one necessary to fullfill rules.
haiku velleity


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First find nought of nought:
Then post both strange words here, and
Wordsmith will get hits.


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Maybe it's a case of velleity.....
It still hazn't googled as a hit. Hope it doesn't take all day, wishing dreamily-e


#54819 02/02/02 02:08 AM
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Howye fokes

I typed in "gallantted wins" and got 1 of 1! Imagine! Do I win a prize now or somethin?

Speaken of prizes, did ye all see me on the telly the other week, at the Golden Gob awards? I won furst prize.
Have ta dash now and polish it up.

Be seein ye

GallantTed - JOURNEYMAN


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the naughts

Connie's coinage isn't coming up, as a 'hit' yet I mean. Is wordsmith immune to Google?

(and by the way, Connie, do you have a good recipe for trilobite fricas[s]ee?) [not-segueing into a food-thread-e, but if anybody'd have this, you would!..prolly with lots of mushrooms!]


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and wine. Don't forget the champagne and wine.I finally remembered what song that line is from. "I Will Be There" by Van Morrison, Ooops, I meant St. Dominic's Preview, not Astral Weeks


#54822 02/02/02 03:07 AM
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This game is too easy. All you have to do is take a few recent wwd's and after eliminating those not in the proper dictionary per faldage] try googling all possible pairs.

Most pairs won't work, but many will. For example, if I haven't slipped:
gonzo winebibber
esemplastic camorra
winebibber ethnology


To make it more challenging, one might look for a two-word phrase actually makes some kind of sense, as in respected faldage, wordsmith faldage, hunk faldage. And even better, a phrase where the neither word of the pair is ridiculously obscure.

The above faldage-phrases are complimentary, but [evil grin -e] I am now searching for phrases of invective.


#54823 02/02/02 11:39 AM
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Maybe it will hit
now that it is a title
if not I am lost


#54824 02/03/02 02:47 AM
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Good heavens, I found one--the only match was from that daggoned on-line text dictionary thing: sashaying salubriously. And if it ain't in the right dictionary--I don't care!


#54825 02/04/02 05:30 AM
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f-y-r-d b-a-t-i-k

f-j-o-r-d a-r-e-o-p-a-g-u-s

Bingley


Bingley
#54826 02/05/02 03:15 AM
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This one was good! A real one hit wonderHi, Musick! Haiku Hippopotomi


#54827 02/05/02 01:42 PM
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Yeahbut©, if you spell hippopotami right you get 44 hits.


#54828 02/05/02 01:51 PM
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find one word which appears nowhere else

Which brings us to my proposal for a revised scoring system. If we use my previous suggestion of multiplying the single word hit numbers of the components all you need do is find a word which appears nowhere else and combine it with the giving you a score of 2,420,000,000. Therefore, my amended scoring plan is: The score for a googlewhack is the lower of the two numbers of hits of each single word.


#54829 02/05/02 04:28 PM
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I agree, faldage. That makes it more challenging: two words neither of which is rare, but appear together only once.

Best I can do at this point is longwinded k-v-e-t-c-h": 1 hit
(9840 hits & 10,600 hits for the components)


#54830 02/05/02 07:05 PM
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It doesn't seem to return the exact number of hits, but an approximate number. Assuming I understand your scoring method correctly,


c-a-llypigian i-n-undation scores 1,030 on 1st word.

i-n-vigorating o-m-phaloskepsis scores 780 on the 2nd word.

b-o-mbastic v-e-rbicide scores 406 on the second word.
(haven't submitted this one yet, though)

My best so far is

q-u-otidian b-l-oviation scoring a 322 on the second word.


k



#54831 02/05/02 07:20 PM
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You want the lower score to be as high as possible! I like it!

Okay, here's one:

f-a-l-l-o-p-i-a-n antigravity, 74,100 and 21,000 respectively, for a final score of 21,000.


k



#54832 02/05/02 07:37 PM
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I'm not sure what principle is at play here, but there's no need to disguise words with gratuitous hyphens for fear of the charm being broken - I just regoogled perambulatory isthmus to test my theory, and it didn't pick up my nonchalant mention a few posts above... I don't know if we're guarded by some sacred force field or if it's just the function of the Board.


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a final score of 21,000 well done, fiend!
A worthy competitor!




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Giving the Fiend full credit for his atomic-physics idea (and flattering by imitation):
shakespearian n-ucleon


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my guess is it takes the google bots at least a few hours and perhaps a few days to pick up new stuff.


#54836 02/06/02 01:08 AM
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Nitpicker

How about synchronous velleity, then?I got one hit, I spelled them both right, and the site is busy, so I haven't been able to post it

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