Google has a new site - What Do You Love? - that lets you type any answer to that question into a search box and receive in return a page with a dozen neatly organized piles of information, images and video about your love interest generated by Google's extended lineup of applications.
(2011's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries)
From a Google blog post:
A while back, a few of us wanted to make a little tool that we could use to show just about anybody more of what Google makes. That led to some simple ideas, and then a few more ideas and ultimately, to a challenge: how we could connect people to products they might not know about and may find useful, but make the discovery relevant to them and keep it fun.
Playing about with that challenge produced a website-What Do You Love?-that we hope meets at least some of the challenge by demonstrating how different Google products can show you different things about any particular search query.
They gave a bunch of suggestions to try - "polar bears, space travel, pickup trucks, Lady Gaga, early Foghat" - and mentioned that searching all of Googledom for "cheese" produced particularly funny results.
And it's easy to see how the Googlers were amused by the cheese. I typed in triplets, because I have a set at home. Results included: "Find triplets nearby," via Google Maps (no, thanks); "Explore triplets in 3D," via Google SketchUp (been there, done that); "Find patents about triplets," via Google Patent Search (if only I had known earlier); and, "Call someone about triplets," with Google Voice (which reminded me of the old "here's a dime" line).
Then I entered "Springsteen" into the box because I love Bruce Springsteen. I get the by-now-familiar collections of locations, videos, 3-D images, and an offer to "Translate 'Springsteen' into 57 different languages."
Also included was a link from Google News to this item telling the story behind the story of Springsteen's 1984 hit "Glory Days." That alone was worth the exercise.
Have fun.
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