Google Guesses

I was typing a search into Google: Where do I buy Thomas the Train accessories? (By the way, I generally know where to buy them but I wondered which toy store had the best selection.)

So as I typed "Where do I buy" Google started guessing what I was going to ask:

Essential oils
Mistletoe
Tier 9
A Kindle
Dry Ice
An iPhone
Savings bond
Stamps


Some of these make sense. I mean, I really wouldn't know where to find essential oils, dry ice or Tier 9. (I actually didn't even know what Tier 9 was and had to do a separate Google search just to figure it out. Apparently it's some armor set for the World of Warcraft. I don't know what World of Warcraft is either but I'm not curious enough to search on this subject anymore.)

And a Kindle...well, I guess everyone might not know that that's an Amazon product. Forgivable.

But an iPhone? If you don't know where to get an iPhone then you probably aren't ready for one.

And a savings bond? You get that at any bank, right?

Stamps has to be the worst one. Come on! In fact, I'm curious about what kind of answer you get if you type in something like that:

Okay, mystery solved: it's...you're never going to believe this...the post office.

Now that I know that I'd like to understand where Google comes up with these guesses. Is it based on popular searches? And if so, why are so many people trying to buy mistletoe in April? Or is it based on my preferences? Is this what Google thinks of me? I'm just a girl, sitting around in armor, rubbing essential oils on my feet (because that's the only part of me not covered in armor) contemplating how I'm going to use dry ice as a weapon in my next World of Warcraft match. And as I'm doing this, I'm reading a book and wishing it were on a computer, rather than a hard back and longing for an iPhone so I could communicate faster with my armor-buddies. Oh, and I need savings bonds, mistletoe and stamps.

It's spooky how right they are.