# My awesome Google search moment **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 4, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052 "2014-06-04T19:05:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/1 "2014-06-04T19:05:19Z")
I was reviewing medications for a study I’m working on and a study subject had taken ibuprofen for “…and elaride pain” as it was recorded in the database. “Elaride?” I asked myself and off I went to Google. Googling produced a link to a Medical Lexicon in google books. I pulled it up and there’s this old lexicon with what looks like elaride highlighted near the binding side of the page. Upon closer examination it’s not elaride but clavicle, which makes perfect sense in my case because another section of the patient’s file mentions clavicle pain. I guess data entry just entered elaride since that’s what it looked like even though it doesn’t seem to actually exist as a body part. So google took “elaride” and image-matched it to “clavicle” in an old dictionary because it sort of looked like “elaride” because the page was bent? That’s pretty mind-boggling! > **[Medical Lexicon](https://books.google.com/books?id=5-oRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA211&lpg=PA211&dq=elaride&source=bl&ots=XdH9t6XTqL&sig=uVj5MoXpRAmiS0WY5qfmS386DNk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hVqPU9aEOKzjsASrooGADw)** ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/2 "2014-06-04T19:08:08Z")
Cool. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/3 "2014-06-04T19:24:30Z")
Hmm, wonder if someone came up with that in a CAPTCHA? ---
**Author:** ![AnthonyElite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@AnthonyElite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnthonyElite)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/4 "2014-06-04T20:46:36Z")
It took me a few minutes to realize how the two were so similar, but when I did I realized something - if google misunderstood it using software…in a similar way that you or I might have misunderstood it…that is some scary- advanced software! ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/5 "2014-06-04T21:42:35Z")
I’m voting for a captcha as well. Recaptcha: [reCAPTCHA](https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/6 "2014-06-04T21:51:30Z")
That’s pretty _dumb_ software. Advanced software would, like a human brain (normally), recognize that “elaride” isn’t a word and fiddle about with the image until it saw “clavicle”. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/7 "2014-06-05T01:35:05Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > I’m voting for a captcha as well. Recaptcha: [reCAPTCHA](https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html) So now that highlighted image is going to show up on login page somewhere and the person has to answer “clavicle”? And then that will contribute to the digitizing of the medical lexicon? ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/8 "2014-06-05T01:45:25Z")
> [@mack](#): > > So google took “elaride” and image-matched it to “clavicle” in an old dictionary because it sort of looked like “elaride” because the page was bent? That’s pretty mind-boggling! More likely, it scanned that book with crappy OCR and matched the text. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/9 "2014-06-05T14:21:48Z")
> [@mack](#): > > So now that highlighted image is going to show up on login page somewhere and the person has to answer “clavicle”? And then that will contribute to the digitizing of the medical lexicon? Something along those lines. It works well. Look up Luis von Ahn or watch his Ted Talk. He’s one of the brains behind Captcha, Recaptcha and Duolingo. ---
**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:** [June 5, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/10 "2014-06-05T21:37:17Z")
> [@mack](#): > > So now that highlighted image is going to show up on login page somewhere and the person has to answer “clavicle”? And then that will contribute to the digitizing of the medical lexicon? Except they’d have to type something like “elaride” because that’s what Google thinks it is. Or, quite likely, Google sent the word to Recaptcha, and that’s what people thought it looked like. That’s one of the flaws of the system–no context. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-awesome-google-search-moment/690052/11 "2014-06-06T16:58:37Z")
I’ll bet they keep track of the different answers for a reCAPTCHA and that there are multiple answers, including both ‘clavicle’ and ‘elaride’. If they’re really good, they’ll allow an erroneous word to go extinct if it doesn’t get enough reinforcement from searches or appearances in other texts. Of course, if they did, we’ve just completely screwed that up.