With the possible exception of to do lists, most people seem to enjoy reading or hearing about lists, particularly top ten lists. I myself am no different in this respect. When it comes to lists, unless the list expressly states how the items are ordered, it is usually best to occupy the top spot on the list. I remember in Junior High School and High School, I had several teachers that delighted in returning tests or announcing grades in descending order.

At the present time, Google is the king of the search engine business. I mean no disrespect to Yahoo!, Microsoft or the other companies that tinker with search engines, but when people want to find something online they more often than not turn to Google. You might think that Google sure knows its lists. As most people who search with Google are aware, Google has a suggestion tool. Basically, it functions quite effortlessly. As a searcher types words into the Google search engine, the Google suggestion tool based on the words searched, produces a list of potential words, phrases or websites that would appear most relevant to the searcher’s inquiry. As far as I know Google makes no claim about how its suggestion tool orders the suggestions.

One day by accident, I began typing a web address into the Google search engine. I noticed that once the web address was entered in its entirety, the Google suggestion tool had produced ten topics relevant to that specific web address. Just for fun, I stripped away all of the web address in the Google suggestion tool except for the www. Below is the list of the topics that the Google suggestion tool listed when www. was typed into the Google search engine. I confirmed the results just prior to publishing this article. I list them below as they appeared from the bottom spot (#10) to the top spot (#1). I think you will find the results quite fascinating.

Number 10: www.gmail.com

Number 9: www.msn.com

Number 8: www.aol.com

Number 7: www.craigslist.com

Number 6: www.hotmail.com

Number 5: www.google.com

Number 4: www.youtube.com

Number 3: www.facebook.com

Number 2: www.myspace.com

Number 1: www.yahoo.com

I found it noteworthy that the Google suggestion tool listed neither its home page, www.google.com or a Google related page, www.gmail.com or www.youtube.com in three of the ten suggestions. I was dumbfounded to see that Google’s very own home page, google.com occupied only the ^5th slot and that Google’s chief search engine rival Yahoo! had its own home page, www.yahoo.com occupying the top spot on the list in the Google suggestion tool.

Note: Today I performed this experiment again.  Google suggested these four websites.

Number 4: www.craigslist.com

Number 3: www.gmail.com

Number 2: www.youtube.com

Number 1: www.facebook.com

Observations:

Craigslist..com moved from #7 to #4

Youtube.com moved from#4 to #2

Gmail.com moved from from #10 to #3

Facebook.com moved from #3 to #1.

Google products and/or services currently occupy 50% of the the top four search suggestions. Previously, they only occupied 25%.

It still seems odd that none of Google products and or services occupy that top spot for suggestions.

Is Craigslist.com an actual site? If I attempt to go to that address, my browser gets redirected  to a local craigslist.org address.

What are you thoughts about these findings?  What suggestions does Google provide to you when you type www. into a Google search engine?

Originally published on Associated Content / Yahoo Contributor Network (YCN) on July 16, 20o9. Updated February 3, 2015 to include new data.

© Copyright, Han Van Meegerin – All Rights Reserved