One of the things about beta software is that it’s very easily abused to comic effect.
Consider Google Maps:
- Looking for Zombies near Toronto? Future Shop. Or the movies.
- For some reason, Murderers near Ottawa, Ontario produces some, er, amusing results.
- The White House is one of the thieves near Washington D.C.
- Fascinatingly, “crack-whores near Washington D.C.” produces only two results.
- On the other hand, fighting crime has never been easier. (Switzerland?)
- In reinforcing-the-stereotypes news, inbreeding near Provo, Utah can be found, among other places at the obvious one.
- This is just wierd.
- And I think that nobody’s surprised to find out that the Ottawa Citizen is a good place to find crack pipes.
- Hah! I knew it!
- BWAHAHAHA…eek!
They practically write themselves.
4 Comments
Do you figure these results come from drawing on their normal search index and trying to come up with the most relevant “local” results?
Still, it’s hard not to think someone was messing with the results for insufferable whiners in Washington, D.C.
I figured that’s what it is, and it turns Google Maps into an geographic opinion aggregator rather than an actual place- or thing-finder once you start searching for adjectives instead of nouns. I wonder if they’ll be able to combine this with their Blogger tools, so that I can figure out who all the wierdos in my neighborhood are?
It already seems to have a good idea.
True. I’m really not sure why the Canadian Association of University Teachers would be on the list of freaks near ottawa, ontario, but I’m not surprised at all to find the Fringe Festival there.