Building Google Sets

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A peculiar experiment in creating related keywords, Google Sets is marginally fun and occasionally useful. I can imagine the appeal of this idea to Google researchers, because it turns the tables on most search enhancements. Usually, Google Labs is occupied with improving search results. Google Sets concentrates on using the Google index to enhance keyword selection.

Google Sets is easier to try than to describe, and you can try it here:

http://labs.google.com/sets

Figure 8-10 shows the Google Sets page, which contains five keyword boxes. Type a word or a phrase into at least one box and press Enter, or choose between the Large Set and Small Set buttons. Results are not guaranteed. In fact, in the test search shown in Figure 8-10, Google Sets could not build a set on the three keywords I provided. Removing one of the keywords, mp3, resulted in the set shown in Figure 8-11. As you can see, supposedly related keywords don’t necessarily add to your knowledge.

Figure 8-10: Google Sets attempts to find related keywords.

Figure 8-11: A Google Set consists of related keywords — or, in some cases, not so related.

Frankly, Google Sets has limited appeal to most daily Google addicts. I know a few writers and journalists who use Sets as a sort of research tool to increase their awareness of key concepts related to an assignment topic. In that way, Sets could be a homework helper, too. But honestly, it’s a stretch to imagine Google Sets fitting into most people’s lives. As one bewildered user posted to the Google Sets bulletin board, “Who is using Google Sets?”

Tip 

Actually, there are uses for Google Sets. For one, you can use Sets as a rough sort of thesaurus: Type a word, select Large Set, and see what synonyms pop up. Anyone who has a limited English vocabulary might find this use especially rewarding. Google Sets also works well with brand names — type one car manufacturer, for example, and get a list of others.

Tip 

You might also try Google Sets as a sort of esoteric recommendation engine with a mind of its own. Because Sets accepts phrases, try typing one or two movie titles and see whether it recommends others. The results lead to exercises in “Six Degrees of Separation,” as you try to figure out how Google connected the disparate titles in the resulting set. A request for a set built on “Remains of the Day” and “Silence of the Lambs,” two Anthony Hopkins films, returned Fargo, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, and The Shawshank Redemption. (By the way, if you haven’t seen Shawshank, rent it soon.) It might be difficult to connect the dots between all those movies, but what’s not fun about lists of movies? Try the same thing with books and music.

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