The Dictionary of Google July 7, 2008

Whenever one googles something, 8.3 times out of 10, one of the top five results is from Wikipedia.

Don’t believe me? You probably shouldn’t, since I made that statistic up. After all, when you research something on Wikipedia, you take the same chance as believing anything I say.

But how often do you think to google Google? I mean, the search engine has become so ubiquitous nowadays that the lowercase ‘google’ was added to the dictionary as a generic term meaning “to search using a search engine.” Technically, I suppose, we can google something in Yahoo!

When you google Google, Google’s Wikipedia page is No. 10. Nos. 1 through 9 are Google products with the URLs [insert product].google.com. So, this constitutes one of the 1.7 times out of 10 that the Wikipedia page is no in the top five.

In essence, 1.45 times out of 10, Wikipedia is in the top 10. That means that .35 times, Wikipedia is not an answer. Pretty amazing, huh?

Follow the link to learn what you can learn.

But through Google’s wiki, I learned a lot. And I’d say 83 percent is credible, as the main entry had more than 100 sources with only a few lingering “citation needed”s.

I learned about the corporate history of Google, how the name is a play on words of the term googol, 10 to the 100th power.

I learned about the search engine of Google, the applications of Google, and Google’s Googleplex.

I learned about the art behind the Google logo and how Google is slowly taking over the world through this list of acquisitions and through Gmail (known as Google Mail in some countries).

And, I learned how Google tries to throw us for a loop with its myriad hoaxes and pranks.

I also learned they’re looking for an ad copywriter for their New York City offices. After all, Google has been named one of the top 100 places to work. I’m considering sending my resume.

So what does this all mean? Besides sacrificing your first- and second-born children to the behemoth that is Google, this empire isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Before the year’s end, there will likely be many more Wikipedia pages on the Google applications, events and acquisitions.

Google is the way of the future. In a googol years, Google will still reign.