Googlewhacking

[octalpus]

I think that astcell said the rules required the word to be listed in dictionary.com to be a word.

Nope, it's even worse than that... it has to be a dictionary word according to Google. I came up with several words from the Oxford dictionary that were rejected.

[TheCotMan]

Nope, it's even worse than that... it has to be a dictionary word according to Google. I came up with several words from the Oxford dictionary that were rejected.

Ahhhh. I was not going by the games like this on TV, but by this from the top post from astcell for his game:

The rules are: No proper nouns, no quotation marks in your search, and no made up words. It is a real word if you can find it at dictionary.com

To find a dictionary word according to google, would the "define:word" search from google be sufficient? (If results are found, then it is a google word, but if not, then it is not?)

(I have not seen this game played on TV yet, but will look for it.)

[Edit: added content below here:]

GO BACK TO BED!

Heh. Just went home after detatching, and am winding down right now.

[astcell]

Sure there are medical, chemical, geolocical and other styles of words that are a few donzen characters in length that will have limited use or coverage. These words are eliminated as they are usually specific to a science, and not an "English" word, per se. I suppose fairness can be judged by the crowd watching on. That may not be good though.

Hmmm, I suppose that some foreign words which are have been accepted in mainstream English are legal, such as cafe and croissant.

Okay I sent an outline to DT, we will see what he says or thinks!

[TheCotMan]

Hmmm, I suppose that some foreign words which are have been accepted in mainstream English are legal, such as cafe and croissant.

What about words like acronyms (SCUBA) or words based on propernouns like degauss or draconian? Would NASA be considered a proper noun and not ok, or an acronym and allowed? What about hypenated "words"?

Okay I sent an outline to DT, we will see what he says or thinks!

Woot! Great deal! Keep us posted. :-D

[astcell]

Actually I did address words like scuba, radar and laser, they are fine. I sent those words in my mail to DT. I'd post the roolz I came up with here but DT can tweak them at his leisure.

[Second]

I know this thread hasn't been posted to in awhile, but I just read in the paper that on The Tonight Show this evening/morning will be "googlewhacker" Dave Gorman. I most likely won't be watching it, but if anyone else does please let us all know if there was anything worthwhile on it. Thanks.

:)

[[Syntax]]

Upon a google search, I discovered this topic has been discussed not only on this thread you brought back to life, but 4 months ago on another thread..

http://forum.defcon.org/archive/index.php/t-4929.html

[TheCotMan]

Upon a google search, I discovered this topic has been discussed not only on this thread you brought back to life, but 4 months ago on another thread..

http://forum.defcon.org/archive/index.php/t-4929.html

:-) Yeah. I linked to the other thread here in post #2.

That was a thread for the idea of a google contest, but I was not willing to run it. However, astcell started this thread and has submitted a set of rules to DT for review. (New contest, new rules, new topic.)

If anything, the thread I started should be closed. (astcell's ideas for a DefCon google contest are better than mine.)

[I've seen the tentative rules, and am still working on suggestions to send astcell an e-mail on it.]

[Second]

Upon a google search, I discovered this topic has been discussed not only on this thread you brought back to life, but 4 months ago on another thread..

http://forum.defcon.org/archive/index.php/t-4929.html

I posted because I thought it would be relevant, seeing as how it was on that night. Sorry if it wasn't.

:)

[Adrenaline]

An idea might be to announce a theme first day of the con like "words must be computer related", etc. without anyone knowing the theme till day of, so they come up with them there and not before hand, that also keeps people from using more obvious searches like "+I +And" (without quotes), which is still technically not against the rules of the first post, and comes back with 842,000,000+ hits. :)

Or another idea could be a team comes up with 3 search strings that they submit in private, and towards the end you check each teams 3 live, and see who gets the most points.

[Voltage Spike]

keeps people from using more obvious searches like "+I +And" (without quotes), which is still technically not against the rules of the first post, and comes back with 842,000,000+ hits.

Except that the point of the contest is to obtain only a single result.

[Adrenaline]

Except that the point of the contest is to obtain only a single result.

heh, somehow my eyes scanned over that part. thanks for pointing it out.
the other ideas are still kinda cool in my opinion if someone's gonna do a contest like this though.

[astcell]

Well DT and I have gone back and forth with this, it's in his corner now. I am sure he has plenty to do already but keep your ideas coming.