

"I'm feeling lucky" no more - lelf
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-im-feeling-lucky-easter-egg.html

======
bbrian
If you add &btnI to the end of a query link, it makes an "I'm feeling lucky"
link.

I used it recently in a RSS feed I was making for events where I didn't have
websites for the events. I made queries with the title, date and location and
added &btnI to the end. It's not perfect, but pretty good.

[http://www.google.com/search?q=Tall+Ships+Race+2012+-+Day+1+...](http://www.google.com/search?q=Tall+Ships+Race+2012+-+Day+1+Thursday%2C+23rd+August+Dublin+%28various+locations%29++Dublin&btnI)

The feed for those interested/those in Dublin:
<http://feeds.feedburner.com/FreeDublinEventGuide>

I had to roll back changes which added descriptions due to the timeouts when
retrieving the data. I'll improve it eventually.

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nostromo
I wish Google would integrate "I'm feeling lucky" into Chrome.

For example, I Google "bootstrap" a few times every weekday. I know Google's
first result will be correct. I'd love to be able to shift-enter or something
in chrome after entering a search term to skip the Google SERP entirely.

~~~
michaelt
In Firefox I can create a bookmark to
[https://www.google.com/search?btnI=lucky&q=java+6+%s](https://www.google.com/search?btnI=lucky&q=java+6+%s)
with the keyword set to jd then by typing (say) "jd Collections" in the
address bar I get directed to the first Google result for "java 6 collections"

I gather you can emulate a similar behavior in Chrome using its 'edit search
engines' function.

~~~
dag11
That's pretty awesome, and it works _exactly_ the same way in Chrome.

I just modified the concept for my own use by making a custom search engine
for

    
    
      https://www.google.com/search?btnI=lucky&q=%s+site:developer.mozilla.org+docs

linked to the keyword "mdn".

So I can type "mdn settimeout" or "mdn border radius" and I'll be taken to the
respective pages!

~~~
celer
As a rather shameless plug, using DDG allows you to do the exact same thing if
you add an exclamation mark without even having to make a custom search
engine.

~~~
roel_v
DDG = duckduckgo.com (some of us who've been reading HN for a long time
probably know this, but I imagine that the majority of readers doesn't)

------
hughes
I remember the first time my mother used Google. She saw the "I'm feeling
lucky" button, thought it was an ad for online gambling, and became upset that
I was directing her to use such a tool.

I really wouldn't miss it if they got rid of it entirely.

~~~
jasomill
While I never use the _button_ , the underlying functionality is incredibly
useful for special-purpose search shortcuts to things like reference
documentation where the top result for a specific key word or phrase is very
likely to be the one you're looking for. The example I use dozens of times a
day is "universal context-sensitive help": for instance, I have Alfred.app set
up with a shortcut mapping "msl SOMETHING" to the the "I'm feeling lucky"
result for "site:msdn.microsoft.com SOMETHING", so, e.g., "msl CreateFile"
will, with very high probability, take me to the reference page for the Win32
CreateFile function, and — here's the important bit — I can set up similar
shortcuts for _any_ documentation site in about a minute.

~~~
archangel_one
One case I found at my last job where the interstitial Google search result
saved the day was when searching for the MFC class CString. As it turns out,
the most popular thing out there called a CString has nothing at all to do
with programming, and if I'd done an "I'm feeling lucky" on it, well, no doubt
my boss would have walked past at just the wrong moment...

~~~
whatusername
if a site:msdn.microsoft.com search comes back with the other type of cstring
results then something has gone very wrong over at Redmond.

~~~
archangel_one
Clearly, but I didn't used to bother with typing that since it's twice as long
as my actual query and most of the time it was the top result anyway.

------
stock_toaster
This seems like an odd change (in the UX sense). I wonder why they didn't just
remove it altogether.

~~~
bpatrianakos
Most likely because people expect to see it but few use it. So now the few who
still use it will be surprised (pleasantly or otherwise), word will spread,
and people who didn't use it before will start using it again with the new
functionality. So instead of removing a classic UI element of the classic
Google homepage they just changed the functionality. I think that's logical.

------
bpatrianakos
And here comes the backlash. The last remaining people who use that button and
those who are just upset because they were alerted to a change anywhere will
all come out of the woodwork to try to convince us all that Google is evil,
stupid, etc. because they use the button or they somehow know better.

Google doesn't just make changes at random. There must be a very compelling
reason to change the "I'm feeling lucky" button. The simplest explanation is
that no one uses it anymore. Good for them. The few who do use it will survive
and continue using Google despite claims to the contrary. I think what they've
done with it is cool. Why keep a UI element in place that no one uses?

~~~
sp332
You couldn't even click the button anyway! As soon as you start typing, Google
Instant kicks in and takes you to search results. So there is _no_ use case
for the button anymore.

~~~
bpatrianakos
Right! I mean, are you disagreeing with me because I'm completely in agreement
with you on this.

~~~
sp332
Right :) I'm just being more specific about what the "very compelling reason"
is.

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vimalg2
This still works for those who use the browser search engine functionality in
modern browsers:

[http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=%s+rotten+tomatoes...](http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=%s+rotten+tomatoes&btnI=Im+feeling+lucky)

I've setup 'rt' as a search engine keyword when i quickly want to look up a
movie on Rotten tomatoes.

You don't even have to type in the full movie name. Make google's algorithms
sweat for your laziness.

------
mmphosis
I'm Feeling Ducky.

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guscost
Still feeling lucky ;)

------
guscost
Testing?

