# Google: fu or F.U.?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-fu-or-f-u/715517
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 20, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-fu-or-f-u/715517 "2015-03-20T18:11:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-fu-or-f-u/715517/21 "2015-03-21T17:24:23Z")

</div>

> [@Flyer](#):
>
> You made two mistakes.

No I didn’t. Or at least, if I made any mistakes, they weren’t the ones you pointed out.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-fu-or-f-u/715517/22 "2015-03-21T17:46:41Z")

</div>

> [@OffByOne](#):
>
> This is what I typed in Google’s input:
> 
> mfc CFileDialog tutorial
> 
> No quotes. The first three **pages** that Google displays do NOT contain the word “tutorial”.

Oops! When I said “pages”, I meant websites. Only the first three responses lacked the exact keyword. And thanks to the commenter who pointed out the **example** synonym; I had not noticed the bolding.

Thanks everybody for the tips!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-fu-or-f-u/715517/23 "2015-03-21T18:50:14Z")

</div>

> [@FXMastermind](#):
>
> Usually Google auto completes what I am searching for. How does it know?

Billions of people search for similar things.

Barack… Obama.  
Florence… italy, and the machine.  
Ice bucket… challenge.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-fu-or-f-u/715517/24 "2015-03-21T23:50:05Z")

</div>

> [@Reply](#):
>
> Billions of people search for similar things.
> 
> Barack… Obama.  
> Florence… italy, and the machine.  
> Ice bucket… challenge.

And not just that simply. It looks for people who have searched for similar things that you have searched for in the past. It also looks at your location, which is why, if you look up a local store, you’ll most often find it first, even if there are multiple stores in other places with the same name.

Google does a whole lot to try and figure out what you mean.

What sucks is when it replaces a word with its antonym. Seems the synonym processor is automatic and not base on human intervention. In fact, I bet it’s the same synonym process that you originally got when you used the ~ operator before a word.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-fu-or-f-u/715517/25 "2015-03-22T02:41:48Z")

</div>

Another possible answer: websites have tags that describe the page to search engines. A page might be tagged as a tutorial, even if the word tutorial does not appear in the visible text.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-fu-or-f-u/715517.md?page=1)