Yeah, it's kinda cool. But it censors the results, so it won't return anything objectionable.
Is there a way to see a list of the phrases for which people have googled? Now that'd be a good way to waste a half an hour.
It's certainly fun just to see which searches bring people to the site. Though I imagine seeing all the Google searches going on would get boring around the 386th time you saw "Brittny Speers."
Supposedly (I've never been there to independently verify) there's an LED display in the front lobby of the Google campus in California that displays google queries of the moment, filtered for explitives, appropriateness, etc.
mike d - I have been there and there certainly is a filtered real-time display of recent queries. I even joked about the filtering with the receptionists, who claimed that the filtering was there to comply with laws against creating a hostile work environment.
FWIW, when they were on University Ave in Palo Alto, they projected recent queries onto the sidewalk.
It would be cool if it worked to (repeatedly) type in "Magik Johnson" ... "[foo] such that Magik Johnson searching (egotisticallly) on his own name would be shockied at Google's suggestions. E.g., lots of people search on "Magik Johnson, wanker" so Magik goes to Goole, types "Magik", and sees: "Johnson, Wanker"!!. And this, the least of the dangers of community participation.
Is there a way to see a list of the phrases for which people have googled?
You can do it with metafilter, and it's pretty entertaining for a while.