Google and "I'm feeling lucky"

HappylilElf

So long story short, my homepage is set to google. I find it's actually pretty handy t hit the "internet" button on my keyboard and have it open a new webpage that defaults to google.

Tonight just before heading to bed, I decided to check my e-mail. So I hit said browser button on my keyboard. I'm greeted with google as is the norm. However while waiting for the page wherein I can log into my e-mail to load, I notice a button right next to "Google Search" labeled "I'm Feeling Lucky". I click on it as I've never seen this before.

I was greeted by a page that was pretty much the same except directly under the search field it contained this-

The "I'm Feeling LuckyTM" button automatically takes you to the first web page returned for your query.

An "I'm Feeling Lucky" search means less time searching for web pages and more time looking at them.


I immediately broke into laughter upon reading that because the first thought I had was that Google has included a kind of "death safe" Russian Roulette to their search engine. I'm not sure why this truck me as hilarious, perhaps because it's so completely unnecessary. Or maybe it's because of the occasional possibilty for hilariously bad results. Or maybe it's just the fact that right next to the button for a regular search there appears teh phrase "I'm Feeling Lucky".

In any case, just thought I'd share :wink:

nefyave

It's been there for ages. Like, years

corcorigan

That's been there a long long time.

JAEF

And it's never been useful.

krazykarl1982

I specifically remember (though I dont remember if it was in this forum or another one of the many) that a few years ago, if you typed in 'Microsoft' and hit that 'Im Feeling Lucky' button, it would send you directly to www.hell.com.

I remember lol'ing really goddamn hard about that one.


edit:ya, it was the other forum I go to and went to the site now... nothing like what it was before. Which now it seems to just redirect to google.

Mr_Grinch

In fact, a quick search of archive.org shows up:

http://web.archive.org/web/19981202230410/http://www.google.com/

That yes, it was there in December of 1998! I am pretty baffled that you haven't come across it in the last 8 years!

On another note, have you noticed that grass is green and the sky is mainly blue?

Man of the Waves

I use the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button as a surrogate ctrl-'o', since keyboard shortcuts are disabled on the work computers.

Kriz

typing words without a URL in the firefox address bar uses the I'm Feeling Lucky feature. it's pretty handy.

LewieP

I heard that they added it when experimenting + testing with random users showed that the majority of people prefered it being there, despite the fact that less than 10% of people ever use it.

Was in an article I read ages ago, so might not be correct to the letter..

robaal

JAEF wrote: »

And it's never been useful.

I found a very neat use for it, actually: say you want to have a keyword search in firefox for some site, but its built-in search sucks - set it up so that it uses google with the "site:" addon and the "I'm feeling lucky" option and the keyword search will take you directly to the result on the target site.

To make a keyword search use I'm feeling lucky just add "&btnI=Lucky" at the end of the bookmarked address.


btw. you can also use it to make links that look like they point to google, while leading to some other site

GertBeef

That is as old as the Internet.

It is also as dangerous as the Internet.

Polago

robaal wrote: »

btw. you can also use it to make links that look like they point to google, while leading to some other site

Devious!

Public PC porn possibly? Perhaps!

robaal

Polago wrote: »

robaal wrote: »

btw. you can also use it to make links that look like they point to google, while leading to some other site

Devious!

Public PC porn possibly? Perhaps!

It only redirects to the page, so the target address would eventually be seen by the firewall/blocking software.

I've only seen it used to trick people into goatse TBH.

ToadTheMushroom

JAEF wrote: »

And it's never been useful.

Not true at all. The built in google search in Firefox uses Im Feeling Lucky, so if you type into the URL bar 'Penny Arcade' not as a URL but just the text it will go to this site.

Shujaa

I've had Google as my homepage for 4 years.

So nyer.

FaceballMcDougal

This is like my mother-in-law not knowing her vehicle had a 3rd row of seats until 5 years after she got it.

JJ

For a time typing "miserable failure" would bring you to Gerorge Bush's whitehouse.gov page.

I think once typing "Hell Hole" or something like that would take you to microsoft's website.

I don't know if these are still true.

Reynolds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb

coryj

JJ wrote: »

For a time typing "miserable failure" would bring you to Gerorge Bush's whitehouse.gov page.

I think once typing "Hell Hole" or something like that would take you to microsoft's website.

I don't know if these are still true.

Google recently changed the algorithm and it no longer works on google. However, other search engines still have this 'flaw'.

misbehavin

Dude... DUDE! The "I'm feeling lucky" button has been there since it was at Stanford... And it's immensely awesome.

Firefox also does this by just typing into the URL bar a non-URL and hitting enter.

Jensen

Yea, I remember back in highschool we used to have fun in networking class between counter strike matches typing in random shit and hitting "I'm feeling lucky" it's fun to do peoples names - only in a group classroom environment, randomly googling peoples names at home, alone, might be considered creepy.

Silvanos

WMD's would take you to a fake 404 "These Weapons of Mass Destruction Could Not Be Found" page.

French Military Victories was a good one to feel lucky about too
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html

whuppins

I thought I'm Feeling Lucky was kind of cool until I realized it just sends you to the first result that a normal search would have. So at best it saves you a single click, and you have to hope it was what you wanted... as opposed to just clicking Search and most likely finding what you need within the first 5 results.

If it were totally random result like the OP thought, that would actually be kinda fun.

Anyway, I think the far more interesting topic here is how the OP went all that time, seeing the Google page several times a day for years, without noticing the button. It's like some new form of aphasia.

slash000

That button has been there for as long as I can remember.



It's only been useful if I've known ahead of time that the first result page that would come up after a quick search would be the one I'm looking for.

it's just usually a result of laziness on my part.

azhais

Yeah, it's been there since google beta. Fairly useful back before the link farms that sprung up for the sole purpose of pushing useless links to the top of google's results.

These days it's pretty useless.

Vegan

This thread makes me lol.