Looking for a good laugh? Try Google

By Lauren Tsugawa

Since its founding in 1998, Google has undoubtedly become the world's most widely used search engine, processing over one billion search requests each day. Gone are the days when we would endure the arduous trek to the library to, heaven forbid, use a book to look up facts for a research paper, or when more than .25 seconds could go by before you knew if Snooki was arrested again, or when we would even fathom asking a friend to "search" for something on the internet — now all we know is, "google it."

Perhaps one of the most interesting features of Google's search engine is its ability to suggest a completion of whatever it is that you're searching for, or to suggest other sites that it thinks might be of interest to you in a sleek, drop-down menu. While this idea is ingenious, unquestionably speeding up the search process, there are often times when Google's suggestions are completely and hilariously unrelated to your search intention. I'm sure we've all come across this during one search or another, but if you haven't, take a moment, when you have a few minutes to spare for a good laugh, to find out. Navigate to the Google search page, www.google.com, and pick a question word to type into the box — let's say you pick "where." Google will then assist you by suggesting endings to your question: "where's my refund" and "where is chuck norris," being the top two assists.

Some of Google's other suggested options, however, are far more ridiculous. If you specify your search even further, for example, "where does," the first auto-fill is, "where does justin bieber live." Enough said.

But how does Google search really work? Actually called Google Suggest, the toolbar works by comparing your search with searches done by other users. "When you do a Google search, you aren't actually searching the web," said Matt Cutts, a Google engineer, "you're searching Google's index of the web."

When you begin to type in the search box, Google scours its own database for the most probable search to complete what you have just entered. To do this, Google ranks searches done by millions of other users in addition to drawing from your own previous searches. So, if you wonder why it is when you type in "how come," and Google suggests, "when I talk to girls on facebook they don't respond to me," or "why is," and Google suggests, "my poop green," it's because hundreds of thousands, if not millions of other people have searched for those very specific, important tidbits of knowledge. I now leave you with my top 5 favorite Google Suggests: 5. why: couldn't you stand on the sun's surface. 4. why is: my goldfish turning black. 3. i am: extremely terrified of Chinese people. 2. why are you: wearing that stupid man suit. 1. can: jesus microwave a burrito

Happy searching! Or should I say, "Google-ing."