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Posted on June 4th, 2009 by Barry Collins
Prince William dead, reports Google
Much like Wolfram Alpha, Google Squared – the company’s stab at “automatically fetching and organising facts from across the web” – has split opinion in the PC Pro office.
However, if there’s one thing we’re all agreed upon, it’s that there’s plenty of work to do on accuracy.
Search for “British royals” for example, and top of the shop is Prince William. Born on 21 June 1982 and (ahem) died on “28 August 1972 (aged 30) Halfpenny Green, Wolverhampton”. So not only did he die before he was born, but he somehow reached the ripe old age of 30. Perhaps there’s a time machine in the Midlands?
Directly beneath Wills is Prince Michael of Kent. Born on 4 July 1942, died on 25 August 1942. How he managed to grow that beard during that blessedly short life is a mystery.
It’s not only Royals that Google Squared is a bit wobbly on. Type in Word Processors and choose Microsoft Word from the Add Items list, and you’ll find that the package is actually “freeware”. That’ll set a few pulses racing in Redmond.
Search for “US vice presidents” meanwhile, and at the bottom of the list you’ll find none other than George Clinton. Nothing wrong with that – he was indeed the 4th US vice president in the early 1800s. However, we’re pretty sure that it wasn’t that George Clinton (pictured).
And he too appears to have borrowed Prince William’s Tardis.
If you spot any more amusing errors, do let us know on comments below.
Tags: George Clinton, Google Squared, Microsoft Word, Prince William
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14 Responses to “ Prince William dead, reports Google ”
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June 4th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Looking at animal facts earlier today I spotted that the average ‘weight’ of a ‘cat’ is 100kg. Clearly mine is underfed then…
June 4th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I hope they don’t fix this, it’s providing a lot of entertainment!
First time in ages that Google have made me smile!
June 4th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
How about Prince Charles, Born 14th November 1948, and died 11th March 1853 (I assume at the ripe old page of -95?)?
June 4th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
hmm, seems good, but does not work with ie 6 at all. (Not my browser, my schools). I don’t know what I prefer, Wolfram Alpha does not know what to do with your input, or lots of info, thats downright wrong.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
A search for browsers gave a nice list of options, but it states “question mark” in the box for “stable release” next to IE… which does suggest alterior motives.
Saying that, Chrome wasn’t listed and Firefox’s lastest stable release is dated September 23rd, 2002.
Clearly it does the basics fairly well but the extra info needs improvement.
June 4th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Colours of the rainbow is an interesting search, not only because it returns 450 – 400nm as one of the colours, but also because Green is published by DC Comics, Orange by Electronic Arts, and Indigo by Atari.
That’s something they never taught me when I did my physics degree,
June 4th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
On the listing of American Presidents mentioning Barack Obama, under “Preceded By” it says “No Value Found”. Well, that just about sums Dubya up.
June 5th, 2009 at 9:55 am
“Briton” gives you a list of singers and “UK” gives Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Apparently, Google is trying to hide good ol’ England
June 5th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Intrigued by the 100kg cat, I searched cat… it appears to be more accurate now listing them between 1 and 3lbs in weight…
Unfortunately upon adding the column “size”, I was told a cat ranged between 30Kb, and 2.99MB… with only one listed as “small”
June 5th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Try a Squared search for ‘Search Engines’ and while it says Yahoo was launched in 1995 and Hotbot in 1996, it does not seem to know when Google was launched. Nice
June 5th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Gave it a go using ‘F1′
All was going well until entry 27. To my surprise John Miles (yes he of the 10-minute ‘epic’ tune Music) was apparantly born in 1981, drove for Lotus and, notably, scored no wins!
Hmm
June 5th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Prince William of Gloucester was died August 28, 1972
Ann
June 5th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Sorry, What I meant was Pricne William of Gloucester Died August 28 1972. In a plane crash he was the first of King George V and Queen Mary’s Grandchildren to Die. He was age (30)
I think someone got the two confusied.
June 7th, 2009 at 5:03 am
[...] Prince William dead, reports Google – PC Pro Search for “British royals” for example, and top of the shop is Prince William. Born on 21 June 1982 and (ahem) died on “28 August 1972 (aged 30) Halfpenny Green, Wolverhampton”. So not only did he die before he was born, but he somehow reached the ripe old age of 30. Perhaps there’s a time machine in the Midlands?… [...]