Least occuring Google searches.

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tonight, in an effort to settle an argument with a friend on the origins of the word 'hotmail' (long story: while privately laughing at another friend who just recently discovered that 'html' was not in fact shorthand for 'hotmail', we wondered aloud whether the word 'hotmail' was in fact derived from 'html' - it is web-based after all - which would in turn render our previously beleaguered colleague something of a radical backwards thinker), i found myself googling for the phrase "origins of hotmail". this led me to thinking: what are the least common google searches?

be as idiotic as humanly possible, obv

― Mark, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

and an answer to the hotmail querie would be nice too

― Mark, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

query even.

oh, and i'll start:

"howard hessman + chakras"

"pitchfork + grateful"

"raggett + porn" (waitaminute...)

do you see?

― Mark, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ya rat bastard.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"poet shirt" (but LOOK!)

http://www.renaissancefashions.com/Clothing/clothing_images/Poet%20SHIRTweb.jpg

and yes I already checked. $45.

― The Actual Mr. Jones, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

it was funny there and it's funny here too.

― Mark P, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I initially suspected that Hotmail was making subtle reference to the subgroup of its original users who were just creating anonymous accounts for online sex adventures and porn registration. Then I realized the html thing, which I'm pretty sure is indeed part of the idea.

― nabisco, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Story about the start of hotmail:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.12/hotmale_pr.html< p> I don't think that it talks about where the name came from, although it might give you words to google on.

― lyra in seattle, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Also- that article was way better printed on neon green (or some similiar color) in the magazine. They should make their archives the same wacked out unreadable colors, because that was part of the fun of flipping through Wired.

― lyra in seattle, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

least searched - "big jubilant tree doctor"

― mike hanle y, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This month's one-hit wonders for petrajane.com include:

3ds rollerskate

afro ken knee socks

bulgarian livejournal

buxom pics

debatement or nontransportation or poultice or thankworthiness

doping or heuristics or poultice or probates or robbers

farting punkrock girls

magic roundabout paraphenalia

oh no fite oh no

pop rock candy and oral sex [a perennial favourite, this]

pose for the camera

propensity or poultice or reprieves or damp or dandy [actually there were a dozen of these weird random-word searches; anyone else notice 'em lately?]

rockstars get laid

sexual depravity

u2's bono and noam chomsky

err, yeh...

― petra jane, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

this reminds me of the googlewhack threads and i'm sure many of the things people have tried on those searches have never been repeated

― Ron, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Or indeed ILEwhacking, a thread I just located via a surely v.unpopular google search.

― N., Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

At the FAP meet last night, Pete repeatedly used the phrase "Heel toe buffalo", and I don't suppose that is searched much. Other popular phrases from last night, such as "Emma and Alan" may be less uncommon as searches.

― Martin Skidmore, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I searched for "fairy wand porn" recently. Don't ask.

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

Where have all the googlewhack threads gone? Assuming there were some (the links above are ancient Greenspun ones).

Anyway: "Nagasaki soup".

Why was I looking for it? Cos I'm convinced it's a death metal song title from my youth, but Google's one solitary result doesn't even allude to it. Anyone?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:12 (twenty years ago)

Charlie, I think we skipped the Googlewhack, and went straight to ILEWHACKING.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:17 (twenty years ago)

I think you dreamt it. Or auto-wrote it.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Thursday, 4 August 2005 07:19 (twenty years ago)

Wiki says Hotmail did indeed get its name from HTML.

Jack Smith first had the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world, originally as an impetus from getting by corporate firewalls blocking regular mail services. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in "-mail" and finally settled on hotmail because it included the letters "HTML" - the markup language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 4 August 2005 08:23 (twenty years ago)

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