The Internet is Awake - Google's Search Algorithms and Mass Consciousness.

Greetings Friends,

This may have been covered before but I thought I'd share anyway. As you all know Google has a predictive search algorithm that starts working to predict what you're going to type as soon as the first letter is typed into the search box. This essentially acts as a keylogger, and when a prediction is correct Google stores that information to improve the accuracy of future predictions. So we all know this means that what the algorithm predicts depends entirely on what everyone else has been searching for on Google. Knowing this I'm always fascinated with what comes up as I type and how closely it matches with what I was going to type. So this morning while randomly searching for a geography question I typed What is the into Google and I was pretty surprised what came up.

1)Weather
2)The American Dream
3)The Illumiati!
4)The Meaning of life

The Illuminati is 3rd ladies and gentleman. When you consider the ubiquitous nature of the question, 'What is the' it's fairly astonishing. Consider how many questions you asked as a child that started with the words 'What is the'. Think of how many students in elementary, middle and high school must be seeing the question "What is the Illuminati" popping up when they search for information for a project they are doing, or paper they have to write. I also find the last 3 share an interesting esoteric connection, the American dream (as most see it) essentially a fabrication of the Illuminati designed to enslave the worker bees so they never really get to figure out the answer to the last question "What is the Meaning of Life".

Regardless of your thoughts on that things have certainly progressed from when I woke up 14 years ago, when saying the word the Illuminati was met with confused looks and clueless expressions. These days when I mention the word to people out in the real world it's usually met with a raised eyebrow and a knowing smile.

So I would love to hear what everyone thinks about this. I played around with a few more such as,

When will the which yielded

1)When will the world end
2)When will the sun set
3)When will the sun die
4)When will the iphone 7 come out..

(Good to see that most people are still slightly more concerned for their own mortality than the new iphone...)

The most worrying what "Who is the" which produced:

1)Who is the Arkham Knight
2)Who is the Arkham Knight leaked
3)Who is the Dark Knight
4)Who is the Arkham Knight spoiler

My first thought is Warner Bro's and Rocksteady have paid Google to adjust the algorithm to suit it's viral marketing campaign for this game, otherwise it's a little alarming that this many people are so interested in what is probably a shitty 3rd installment of a mediocre video game

Regardless it will be interesting to see if the scripted program of reality will again resonate with the Batman theme as the new film Batman v Superman comes out next year. Those in the know will agree this topic needs a thread all of it's own...

Happy Sunday all!