Game Idea: Can You Stump Google? Play Now!

Can you think of a pair of words that would almost never occur together? That’s what this game is about and Google is the judge. Any number of players can play. You can even play it alone. Post comments about your experiences playing and your ideas for varying the game.

How to play: Enter any two words in Google’s search window , and then note how many hits (search results) Google comes up with (If you use Google at Google.com it displays a number so you don’t have to count. Unfortunately, no number is displayed when you use the Google search box on this page). Once the game gets going you can add variety by making it a rule that after each round you click on one of the hits or one of the ads displayed and discuss it, goof on it, or make up a story based on it (you decide). Don’t worry, Google ads are screened to rule out things that are malicious or not appropriate for kids to view.

Winner: The winner in each round is the player who comes up with the lowest number of hits. A round is a set of turns in which each player has tried one pair of words

Not allowed: Proper names, logical operaters (and, or, -, +, etc.) and quotation marks are prohibited.

Strategy: The way to get few results is to choose two rarely-used words that would not be likely to appear in the same document. In other words, uncommon words with the least relevance to each other. lt’s a great game to play with kids because it will expand their vocabulary, but be gentle: Don’t win too often or they won’t like it. I got down to about 6,000 hits with u-bolt eardrum. Then after many tries got below 2,000 with u-bolt tympanic.

Suggestion: Open Google.com in one window of your computer while keeping this page open in another window so you can refer back and forth for new rules and variations to try and so you can post comments about your experiences with the game and your ideas for varying it.

Benefits: This is a very social free-form game that will promote interaction between the players and give opportunity to learn new words and visit unfamiliar websites. Parents can slip in important messages about how to stay safe on the internet as they play with their kids.
Variants: Make a special rule about zero hits, like, instead of zero being the best outcome, make it the worst so that 1 hit is the best. Or make zero result in a do-over for that player. Or, set the goal as 2 hits or any number you choose in order to make

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