Google's silent experiment .. What do you love ? | Hacker News Reader

Google's silent experiment .. What do you love ?

wdyl.com

Am I the only person who's suspicious of a site that purports to be from Google, yet is not on a Google domain, doesn't work without the "www" and whose credibility comes entirely from the fact that there's a Google logo on it?

EDIT: I'm expecting it to be a real thing, but it's just weird that sources like TechCrunch and Fast Company don't have any statement from the company, just a "tipster," and it's not on a Labs domain like most Google Labs products.

and of course the whois information

    Domain wdyl.com:
      Margaret McLaughlin
      76 Ninth Avenue
      New York, NY 10013 US
    
    Administrative contact:
    Technical contact:
    Billing contact:
      
      Margaret McLaughlin
      
      76 Ninth Avenue
      New York, NY 10013 US
      Phone: +1.2125659741
      Fax: 
    
    Record dates:
      Record created on: 2005-09-27 18:18:10 UTC
      Record modified on: 2011-06-24 16:36:56 UTC
      Record expires on: 2011-09-27 UTC
    
    Nameservers:
      myns2.fabulous.com:
        208.48.81.137
      myns1.fabulous.com:

Note taht the domain registrar "FABULOUS" is specifically intended as a service for "Domainers" people who buy and park||minimally build out||put up forsale signs on domains with the intention of turning a profit.

Check out the terms of opening a Fabulous account:

    Request Membership

    To be eligible for a Fabulous account we require 
    that you meet at least one of the following:

        Domain portfolio must generate US$750+ per month
        Transfer 750+ domains to Fabulous

    If your portfolio generates US$750 a month or you are
    willing to transfer 750+ domains to Fabulous, please 
    complete the form below.

So WDYL.com on a domainer's registrar and also a pretty shitty site? Yeah, more than just a little suspicious. I'm feeling pretty secure in saying that it's 100% not google .. but I'd love to know a little more about this Margaret McLaughlin I bet a search would turn up a number of other domains that she's got her whois information tacked on to.

EDIT oh my ... would you look at that. 76 Ninth Avenue in New York is apparently Google's new Manhattan office! Maybe it IS google.

Damn. Now I've gone from thinking it's fake to thinking it has some chance of being real.

Well, the address on the whois record is just down the street from my office. I could stop by there this afternoon and see who's behind this.

EDIT - Never mind, I see that's the Google CoHo. Guess we'll just wait and see.

it is hosted by google:

   $ host www.wdyl.com
   www.wdyl.com is an alias for ghs.google.com.
   ghs.google.com is an alias for ghs.l.google.com.
   ghs.l.google.com has address 209.85.147.121

   $ whois 209.85.147.121

   Google Inc. GOOGLE (NET-209-85-128-0-1) 209.85.128.0 -209.85.255.255

and the domain wdyl.com is registered to someone who purports to have an @google.com email address.

but ghs.google.com seems to be the host used by google apps:

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=48090#K

and as another answer suggests, the dns hosting is suspect. doesn't seem like google...

The site is awful, no explanation at all on the frontpage - it just asks you to provide them with something you love without any incentive. Then there's the slider thing on the top left of the search results which adds nothing at all.

"Explore your mom in 3D" was pretty amusing though.

Why is that site registered to:

Domain wdyl.com: Margaret McLaughlin 76 Ninth Avenue New York, NY 10013 US

Nameservers: myns2.fabulous.com: 208.48.81.137 myns1.fabulous.com: 208.48.81.136

Good question, but the original site itself exists at

http://www.google.com/whatdoyoulove/

I assume it's a Google engineer's side project which has become a bit bigger over time

That site barfs with an 'over application quota', whereas the original link works fine. Strange...

That is the physical address of Google's NYC office.

I used it on my phone and entered 'craft beer', and I was actually impressed. I don't think it means to offer anything new and revolutionary, but it does a great job of showing people how they can use the web in different ways (outside of just searching) to interact with things they enjoy. This would be great for people who are new to the internet. Obviously, HN is not the intended audience.

The idea is great but somehow the suggestions are pretty weak. I don't know if it can be refined to something relevant, even with results improved with user tracking data.

I tried "my wife". God, so creepy..

(I know I know, it asks "what")

"find my wife nearby" "explore my wife in 3d"

The search button is shaped like a little heart .... I've never seen something like this from Google before !

I guess the intention is not to 'search' but to say that you love the terms you entered in the textbox. So, IMO the heart button looks very suitable for that.

Yeah I guess so. I seems to designed to give results for abstract things like "blue jeans" rather than a specific query like "nokia e65".

Indeed. Perhaps the better title would be "what do you care about?", "what are you passionate about?" or "what are you interested in?" Asking what people love doesn't really explain what the site is for.

I typed in "cho", and the suggested search was "choking". I was going to type in "chocolate", but ok...

seems like david carradine was in the closed beta.

i love cats, and it didn't find anything in product search!

"Buy all kinds of cats stuff with Product Search No results were found.

Polite cough Couldn't find anything. Sorry. Try something simpler?"

I had to enter "boobs" the result is just hilarious :)

"Find boobs nearby on Maps"

pretty good way to show off google's array of products. But also makes me wonder about the 'too many things going on at google' thing

"Free Will". The results made no sense to me.

oh geez internets, are we speculating over who owns a domain now?..

Reply on news.ycombinator.com