Google Whacked Out?

The seemingly innocuous task of trying to find a google search that only returns one result may have already been done to death, but with this in the back of my mind I wondered how Google images could be tested in a similar fashion. I've long been conscious of the 'safe search on' or 'moderate safe search on' elements to Google and in that vein rapidly removed them, much to my colleagues surprise when I was searching for a silhouette for a web design I was doing.



This got me thinking what terms were associated in people's minds with 'unsafe' images and what words or phrases would illicit such 'unsafe' material? What innocent phrases would result in an embarrassing desktop situation at work. I decided to try out a few phrases and in doing so, invented a measuring system for the results. It was simple; how many pages of images arose before something 'unsafe' arrived.

OK. So thought I would start with a fairly obvious, but not necessarily sinister one: Woman. You'll be pleased, and somewhat unsurprised to find that there were some 'unsafe' images on the first page, indeed the first image itself was a little risque, though not offensive. The same can not be said for the other images on the page, which frankly would have even made Pat Butcher wince. Not really sure what the ratio of safe / unsafe would be on the first page but I reckon it was about 60/40 safe/unsafe and that's including the picture of a woman with a beard and a 320 pound woman bearing down on a midget as 'safe'. So really, not that safe either way.

I'm now dreading the startlingly obvious, but perhaps less sinister: Man. Being the generic, but admittedly sexist common name for our species I hoped that the results would be perhaps a little more academic in nature. In this circumstance I was saved, though there was full nudity on the first page, but only graphically in one instance. Relatively safe and certainly not pornographic.

Although it's given me an idea for future posts I have to say I felt a little bit disappointed that Google's image search was so easily tainted.

3D over-kill for street maps or was it an April fool's stunt?

Don't, don't, don't, don't believe the hype. Well it's a bit tough at the moment to know what's going on with Streetmaps other than that is appears to have ground to a complete halt. After the April 1st launch of '3D' street view and me, for one, thinking that it might actually be the case, the removal of the '3D' version seems to have been as painful as stapling one's proverbials to a virtual table.

The service was near unusable for a couple of days and now the '3D' version doesn't seem to exist. Which is a little frustrating after having spent my fiver on some paper 3D glasses to see if it did work, but hey, I suppose I now have the opportunity to find another use for them. At least if it turns out not to be a hoax then I'm poised to take a proper look. 

Facebook Divorce Catalyst

Ever been dumped on facebook, or caught your partner facebook stalking someone else? Well, you're not alone. It seems that it's more common than we thought. Latest results show that 19.78% of UK divorces in 2009 quoted Facebook as being a factor.


















Let's be clear on this. Not that facebook was hard to use after a tough break up because they saw their partner having loads of fun or that they couldn't bear to look at their profile with all the history there in their face. No. Nearly 1 in 5 quoted it as a factor. That means that they either perceived the use of facebook or did use facebook in order to cause partial grounds for divorce. Wow. I'm clearly not using facebook properly.

Having said that, in the early days of facebook I did 'marry' my beautiful friend Natasha, only to receive loads of calls and texts from people who were upset I didn't invite them to the wedding and who was Natasha anyway. Natasha will always stand as both my first facebook wife and my first facebook divorce. I suppose that makes me a facebook widower.

Suppose I better get on with the trudgery of finding someone else... now, it's got to be time for a new profile picture...

Travelling without moving

In search of a break from city life I found myself looking for a holiday online but was just confused by the choice and scared by the prices. Not only do you have to try and work out where's good to go, but how you can justify the cost to yourself. There has to be an easy way... Could it be possible to have a cheap break from the comfort of my home?

The first result was Earthcam - a network of webcams across the world. There's some great kitesurf location webcams, but they're not that great for the fast action of kiting. Similarly, the webcams from the ski resort of tignes is great for checking what the snow is like, but not great to give you a sense of being there.Princess cruises offers you a view from the bridge of each of their cruise ships, but again it's only updated every 5 minutes.

Basically, I'm left wanting. It's clearly possible to explore the world via the web, but we're a long way from an experience to remember... but then... I remember to check Google.

Just so happens that on the 1st April, Google started making some of the cities in their Street View available in 3D. Finally, a use for those old 3D glasses! Unfortunately the one's you've nicked from the local cinema won't work..

The glasses you need are Anaglyph glasses Red & Cyan, which can be bought for about a fiver from www.ebay.co.uk or www.bestofferbuy.com. I just ordered some from ebay.

I checked and the Opera House in Sydney and that's available in 3D, so I'm going to make a list of all the places to visit for when my 3D specs arrive.