Why Whack a Google?

A brief look into the strange SE games of today.

by Rupert Sharp
of http://www.oyster-web.co.uk

Last updated: 12 Sep 2007

A game that was brought to my attention by a friend who had watched the comedian David Gorman's Googlewhacking DVD, an amusing true life story of David's journey around the world to meet 10 so called Googlewhacks. What on earth is a Googlewhack? I'll tell you, a Googlewhack is a two word phrase that when searched in the Search Engine Google only returns a single result containing your two words, the words can be anything you like as long as they are real words that exist in www.dictionary.com (Google's guide when checking misspelt words).

Although this sounds impossible you would be surprised as to how many GoogleWhacks there still are to discover, it's basically all about thinking of two words that are in no way connected at all and seeing if they produce a Googlewhack, for example 'cognitive lemons' (isn't a Googlewhack but it was worth a go). It's the kind of game that reminds you that you should have gone to bed 5 hours ago.

If you do happen to come across a phrase like “Coelacanth Sharpener” (as one of David Gorman's aquaintances did) and you are greeted with results 1 of 1 of 1 then you have been successful. Although some of us are not as obsessive as to try and meet 10 people whose website is a GoogleWhack before we're 32, it is still quite an addictive and utterly pointless game. The official GoogleWhacking website is http://www.googlewhack.com/ go have a look at some of the mad combinations people have come up with. Happy Whacking.