Googlefilter: What is the name of this search engine game?

October 22, 2008 8:18 PM

What is the name of this search engine game?

I once heard of a game where two players search the internet for phrases, and the first one to score one and only one web site containing a search term wins. I think the name of the game was one of these phrases - like "octopi ninjitsu" or something similar but my google-fu is failing me.
Do you remember what this games is called and where it originated? Also, do you know of any similar search based games?

posted by abirae to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Googlewhacking
posted by pompomtom at 8:23 PM on October 22, 2008

...or rather
posted by pompomtom at 8:24 PM on October 22, 2008

Not quite a search-based game, but I remember people playing "Web That Smut", where a site would be chosen, say "cnn.com", and people would bid how many clicks (no inputting text) it would take to get to a website with porn on it. "I can web that smut in 15 clicks" "12" "Web that smut!"
posted by fings at 8:40 PM on October 22, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Googlewhack! That's it! I think I heard of it named after a particular googlewhack but that was the perfect link.

And Web that smut is perfect! Are you allowed to click on ads?
posted by abirae at 8:49 PM on October 22, 2008

Dave Gorman wrote a book on googlewhacks.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:26 PM on October 22, 2008

the googlewhack you're probably thinking of is our own anil dash's nigritude ultramarine contest winner.
posted by judith at 1:25 AM on October 23, 2008

Web that Smut is the brainchild of Andy Ihnatko. Andy also has a website.
posted by Wild_Eep at 8:27 AM on October 23, 2008

Smut sounds fun. We've lately been playing the f*cking game. Can I say f*cking on Ask? Anyway here's how to play. Go to Google image search, turn off Safe Search. Pick any word, and add "f*cking". See how many pages you can next through before you hit porn. "F*cking dradle" was the best we could do, I think it was 13 pages. This is a great game to play with a group, because it generates a lot of interesting discussions about "what is porn?"
posted by Area Control at 8:44 AM on October 23, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]