Googlewhacks

I ended New Year’s Day 2003 naked in a hotel room in Washington DC eating a Pot Noodle with a toothbrush.

Yes, this is just words on a t shirt. And seemingly garbled, nonsensical ones. If you’re unfimiliar with what a Googlewhack is, it’s basically a two word Google search that only returns a single entry. That might help make it a little more clear.

I won’t go on in great detail about the details of Dave Gorman’s ‘adventure’ element (which has its own rules), as the whole stand up show is visible on YouTube (now coincidentally owned by Google) and is thoroughly worth a watch. In a nutshell, though, Dave gets an email from a bloke in Australia, saying he *is* a Googlewhack. Or rather his website contains a Googlewhack (the top ‘Francophile Namesakes’). From this, he manages to hammer out a challenge with one of his friends that sees him attempt to achieve a chain of 10 Googlewhacks before he turns 32.

Obvious spoilers, but the words are the winning list. Of eleven, including the first one. You’ve probably already clocked the colour scheme of the Google logo (blue, red, yellow, blue, green, red, repeat), which just seemed the most natural thing.

As mentioned in the quote, all of this happened around 2003, making it a little bit of a time capsule. The fact is, over twenty years of new content makes Googlewhacking almost impossible.

You can’t help but think that this whole escapade didn’t help.