Oranginalt (noun.) A search term that only turns up one result in Google

by phil on Saturday Jul 3, 2010 2:23 AM

Here's a game you can play with Google: How many searches for a single word does it take to get exactly 1 result?

Here's my first attempt:

1. lambertina - 97,900 results. Turns out its actually a town.
   
2. livinschwin - 0 results.
   
3. lividnous - 9 results. I figured there might be a mis-spelling out there for the word "libidnous."
   
4. progug - 17,300 results. I learned that probably any word-sounding six-letter word is going to turn up a lot of results.
   
5. larperi - 2,430 results. Well, it looks like I didn't learn my lesson soon enough, or thought maybe seven-letter words wouldn't have the same problem.
   
6. hasvertiti - 0 results. This is where I try to get smart.
   
7. hasvertit - 0 results. Do you see what I'm trying to do?
   
8. hasverti - 3 results. Ooh, closest one yet. Let me work back in the other direction.
   
9. hasvertia - 0 results. Damn. Let me try something completely random.
   
10. oranginalt - 1 result. Wow, well how about that.
    

Final Score: 10

It took me 10 Google searches to come up with an expression that turns up exactly one result. How come it took that many? Did I get "better" somehow, at finding this needle as I narrowed in on "oranginalt?" It's a beautiful word isn't it, "oranginalt?" Like an orange-colored Renault car. Are all other oranginalts as interesting?

What happens if I try again:

1. tripidiz - 0 results.
   
2. troizchk - 0 results.
   
3. larchkt - 5 results.
   
4. darchkto - 0 results.
   
5. lemroem - 2 results.
   
6. droenen - 1,020 result. But things were going so well!
   
7. khtohtho - 0 results.
   
8. khtohth - 1 result. The delete-one-letter trick worked!

Eight tries. Hmm. Maybe I got lucky with "oranginalt." And maybe I don't actually have a knack for finding these words. "khtohth" is an interesting word though! Maybe not as interesting as "oranginalt," but it is unique, yet not totally garbage. And maybe that's the point.

I wonder how many oranginalts are there under 15 characters?

Unfortunately, after this post, "oranginalt" will no longer be an oranginalt.

UPDATE: The Law of Oranginalts: The number of oranginalts is always decreasing. This is why they must be preserved, these oh-so-precious things. But don't preserve them publicly, though, or they will become extinct!

Comments

Andy Baio said on July 3, 2010 11:45 AM:

Six results for "originalt" now! Great variation on the Googlewhack game. It'd be pretty easy to write a short script using the Google Search API to find the smallest originalt.

Philip Dhingra said on July 3, 2010 12:19 PM:

Oh yeah, completely forgot about Googlewhacks!

Obbop said on August 17, 2010 10:34 PM:

Way to go....

Your "meddling" led to:

About 38 results for oranginalt

Sniff.

My hopes, dreams, desires dashed upon the rocks of despair.

Sniff.

Philip Dhingra said on August 17, 2010 10:36 PM:

Exactly, that's what makes them so precious.