by tollie

I thought it was about time to really put Google to the test - with a quiz.

Q: “How far is the Earth from the Sun?”
Google: Earth - Distance From Sun: 149.6 106 km - According to http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/planet_table_british.html

Ok, 1 for 1.

Q: “When did WWII end?”
Google: WWII - Duration: 1939-45 - According to http://www.pubquizhelp.34sp.com/hist/war.html

2 for 2.

Q: “Who shot John F. Kennnedy?”
Google: Lee Harvey Oswald - Property: Accused assassin of John F. Kennedy. - According to http://www.who2.com/leeharveyoswald.html

Well, that’s a funny way to put it, but I’ll give credit for it. Most of the search results included the conspiracy theories anyways… 3 for 3.

Q: “How many people live in Alabama?”
Google: Alabama - Population: 4,447,100 ; 23rd, 12/00 - According to http://www.50states.com/alabama.htm

That’s impressive. 4 for 4. Surely it won’t get the next one:

Q: “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?”
Google: Tootsie Roll Pop - Licks It Takes to Get to the Center: Three - According to http://www.tootsie.com/howmany-sb.html

See - told you! Everyone knows it’s “The world may never know.”

Actually, I’m just testing out Google’s new ‘Q&A’ search. It’s sort of Ask Jeaves, meets Googlism, meets the Google labs. Just type in plain questions as I did, and see if Google can figure out the answer.

Also new on Google this week is pre-fetching of the top link for Mozilla based browsers. So if you’re using Firefox (and you should be), and you notice that the top listed result on your Google searches loads really fast, it’s because Google is assuming it’s got it right, and it’s loading that site in the background already for you.

Now, let’s see, before I post this, is there one Z or two Zs in Quizing?
Google Search: Quizing. Click. Did you mean: Quizzing

Thanks Google - for helping us all become pretty dumb without you.