There are things you don't tell your husband. There are things you don't tell your therapist. But virtually everything can go into Google's search box — for Google to re-broadcast to the world, via its "suggestion" feature.
Blogger Ben Casnocha's friend told him, "There is nowhere we are more honest than the search box. We don't lie to Google." That seems to be true, judging from the blunt queries offered up by Google's autocomplete suggestions, which are generated based on other similar and popular searches. In other words, people have asked these actual questions, niftily compiled by Slate:
The suggestions get classier if you rephrase your query to sound more edum'cated. But still disturbing:
Disturbing though they may be, these suggestions are at least anonymous. Anonymous, that is, until Google "suggests" a search to a federal agent that makes him wonder, "Who the hell asked that?" Until that inevitable day, have fun.
