What is Mystery Google?

Hi Everybody,
No one is quite sure of whether or not Mystery Google has a connection to the parent company of Google, which is quite unlike the openness with which the company generally functions, but Mystery Google is based on the search engine results of this widely used internet search engine. So how does Mystery Google work? The basic fundamental of the website is simple - when you type in a search query, the results you get are not for the query you asked but the results of the query asked by a user before you. Hence, the name of the site, Mystery Google - you are never quite sure of what the website will give you results for. For example, when we typed the term mystery in the search bar of the website, the results we got were for a previous search on I'd say it was definitely at least that much in kittens. Another search for Haruki Murakami, the Japanese author got us results for Kelsey. Sure, while the entire process and the curiosity about what results you will get is entertaining for about five minutes or so, the interest in the site tends to die down after a while. The idea, a novel one in the virtual world, is a weird reminder of Ogori Cafe, Kashiwa, Japan which we read about a couple of weeks ago. This cafe serves you the order that the previous person placed at the cafe. A way to liven the entire experience of eating out. Mystery Google seems to be working on the same principle. Serving things to people that they don't expect. So, if you have been trying to figure out how does Mystery Google work, well this is the basis of its functioning. While in most technology blogs and amongst users it is still referred to as Mystery Google, the website is now known as Mystery Seeker, after a sudden change of name on 1st of December 2009.

Now that you know how does Mystery Google works, here is an introduction to the trend amongst the users of the website that makes it so popular. Mystery Google users indulge in something that is known as missions. In a mission, the next user is asked to do something. This is easier to understand with an example. If I type Google Mystery Mission: Go post a get well soon card to ________ for his birthday tomorrow, then the person who searches the site after me, will get this as a result and will therefore, have a mission. Similarly, I can receive a mission by searching for various things on the site, till I get a search result that specifies a mission for me. This is one of the main ways of passing time on Mystery Google.

Now that we know how does Mystery Google work and how it can be used to entertain oneself, the next time you are getting bored, log on to the site and try and get a mission to dispel your boredom for a while.