In Tune: If mighty Google could read your mind ...

Ever since I interviewed him a few years ago, I've had a tremendous respect for Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot.

Maybe it's his charmingly folksy vocals, the evocative, poetic tint to his lyrics or the fact that even a burst artery in his stomach at age 63 didn't end his career. He's like a hypertalented hybrid of Jackson Browne and the unstoppable mutant Wolverine, who is - coincidentally - also a canuck.

After "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," one of my favorite Lightfoot songs is his 1970 single "If You Could Read My Mind." It was his breakthrough onto the American charts, and I rank it up there with Jim Croce's best on my list of favorite folk songs.

I find that I hear it all the time, and maybe that's because whenever I use Google's search engine, the chorus starts playing in my head: "If you could read my mind, love / what a tale my thoughts could tell."

You see, telepathy is no one's strong suit, but thanks to Google, all of us can gain some pretty entertaining insights into what the world is thinking just by typing a few words into the search bar.

Google's autocomplete scans its backlog of previous queries and uses predictive algorithms to try to anticipate what you're searching for. So when you start entering words, it generates a list of the most common queries that begin with what you've typed. Basically, it finishes your sentence for you.

The world's most popular search engine, Google has an incredibly dense history of past queries to base these predictions on. According to CNET, it processes more than 1 trillion searches annually.

So if you want to know what people are thinking about a topic, just turn to Google and prepare for a chuckle because those predictions are often hilariously eye-opening.

For instance, type "Are ..." into the search bar, and Google's black magic assumes you're about to type:

  1. "... shingles contagious?"
  2. "... vampires real?"
  3. "... mermaids real?"
  4. "... we there yet?"

What about Mr. Lightfoot? What do Googlers want to know about him (besides whether he's a vampire or a mermaid, of course)? Enter "Is Gordon Lightfoot ..." into the search bar, and the responses are pretty grim:

  1. "... still alive?"
  2. "... ill?"
  3. "... dead or alive?"
  4. "... dead?"

Clearly, no one paid attention to his Chuck Norris-like invincibility in the face of otherwise crippling injuries. Then again, if Googlers are so keen for him to be 6 feet under, they should heed the lyric from another song, 1978's "If There's a Reason":

"If there's a reason for livin' without me," he sings," just let me know and I'll move on."

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.

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