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But what value does displaying that number add to the activity undertaken by the user?

When I'm trying to choose between two alternative spelling or phrasings of a concept, I'll frequently google the two alternatives I'm considering to get a sense for which is more common.

And you measure "more common" by looking at the number of results returned?

Maybe the user wants to find out if there is more weather data for Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra by comparing the number of results. Sydney has the lead, btw.

Maybe they do, and number of results will give that information. But how does one verify authenticity of that number. For example saying that there were 102,345,290 results returned for a query is of no use if you cannot browse to x result. Google could have just picked these numbers out of proverbial hat. Maybe they already do :)

</thinkingOutLoud>

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