I usually never pay attention to the auto complete suggestions offered by Google, until now, when I found they can be quite amusing. What’s even more fun though, is repeating a search across different country specific sites, to get a idea of what the people of that nation are most worried about. Here’s a sampling, let’s start with India:

#1 certainly explains India’s growing population. We’re also quite obsessive about learning proper English (Outsour Singh is desperately looking to land that call center job) and hacking Orkut accounts. Now, for the Netherlands:

I guess the one take-away from this is that the English speaking Dutch population (which is quite large, mind you) are mostly looking for more info on some romantic comedy from Hollywood. I was also curious about the results for the USA:

Hmm, why are there so many Americans wanting to learn to “tie a tie”? “How to solve a Rubix cube” is about the only intellectual entry to appear on the suggestion list among all three countries, until you realize that it’s actually spelled “Rubik’s”. I wouldn’t be surprised if “Rubix” makes the dictionary soon.

The common theme for all countries seems to be: learning to kiss. Indians are confused between “losing weight” and “reducing weight”, which also explains why everyone wants to get better at English. Some Indians also want to gain weight, a term which is most definitely absent from American searches. Our Dutch friends have no interest in either, I completely understand why; they maintain a very healthy lifestyle by cycling all over the place. The Americans have apparently mastered the art of downloading videos from Youtube, while the Indians and Dutch are still learning the ropes. American women first want to learn to get pregnant and then quickly want to get rid of the resulting stretch marks, while Indian ladies don’t bother with the latter.

The geeks out there will notice the UI improvements on the US version of Google over the other two. I think I’ll stop drawing inferences now

Try your own fun searches to see what auto-suggest has in store! Suggested starting point: “How to use”…

Very cool.

The 9fans list has produced TWO fortune-worthy quotes this weekend, a rather rare occurrence

If you cannot read this, reply. Otherwise, disregard. -Pietro Gagliardi

Come _on_. I’m not that subtle a “baiter,” or… am I? -Eris Discordia
you’re a master baiter. -Skip Tavakkolian

I must say the quality of traffic on the list has been detoriating even over the relatively small amount of time I’ve been subscribed to it.

Another meme has begun:

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair… just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

If you’re feeling bored of the Internet, check this site out. I guarantee you hours and hours of laughter. ’nuff said

Here’s a depiction of what Randall Munroe thinks about Open Source:

Do check out the rest of his webcomic. I’ve loved every single one

UPDATE: It seems a couple of XKCD fans shipped a real katana to RMS:

RMS responded with a thank you email, signing off with: “I am not sure what to do with it, other then keep it near my bed”. Heh.