Cool website quizzes and tests

Several years ago, I wrote about the annoying quizzes which would pop up at the time in your facebook feed. The type which would tell you which Game Of Thrones character your friend was most like, which actor would play them in a movie of their life, or which industrial universal joint they were most like.

However, not all quizzes on the internet are annoying, and some of them can in fact be quite interesting. So this week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog takes a look at a variety of quizzes, tests, and other data themed websites found on the web.

1) The 100 most common English words

Here are three clues, and also a red herring.
Can you guess which is which?

This is an interesting quiz where you have to guess the 100 most commonly used words in the English language. It starts off really easy as you go through most of the obvious common words, but as the clock ticks down it gradually gets more tricky as you try to think of the remaning words.

I guessed 72 of the 100 most common English words, but then at the end when it shows you the full list my reaction was, "How did I not get those!?" There aren't really any surprises in the list, but I suspect most people will probably miss quite a few really obvious words.

You can take the test at the link below:

10 weird websites (part 2)

I often like to recycle ideas on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, and this week is no exception! This week's blog post is based on a theme that I've featured before ... weird websites.

So without further ado, here's another batch of 10 weird websites...

1) Windows 93

Windows 93

If you're in a technology shop and you want to play a sneaky trick, then go to the website below on one of the display PCs, and it will appear as if the computer is running Windows 93! It's so authentic that you even get the old Windows start up jingle!

As an added bonus if you click on the icons each icon brings up a weird 'app'. I highly recommend playing a few games of 'BrianSweeper' and seeing how well you do. I completed it on expert on my first go! #NotReally

www.windows93.net

Cool Star Wars Websites

As all Star Wars fans are aware, May 4th is officially Star Wars Day, or May The Fourth Be With You Day, as some people call it. So before we go any further, happy Star Wars Day!

In honour of Star Wars Day, here's a round-up of various cool, and in some cases weird, Star Wars websites...

Darth Fudgemuffin

1) Star Wars Avatar

The Star Wars Avatar website lets you create your own Star Wars avatar to use as your profile photo on facebook, twitter or other social media sites.

You can choose from various species such as human, Twi-lek or Rodian (Greedo's species), and then customize your avatar with various weapons, clothes and backgrounds.

To the right, you can see my own avatar based on Darth Maul which I've named Darth Fudgemuffin.

starwarsavatar.com

10 weird websites

Previously on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I've featured all manner of weirdness, including, to name but a few, weird national days, weird google searches, and weird facebook likes. This week the weirdness continues with another weird round-up as I take a look at ten weird websites...

1) Infinite zoom

The image just keeps zooming in and zooming in forever.

If you're into art then you might find this first website absolutely amazing. I'm not really that interested in art, and I still found it amazing!

It starts with an unusual image, which starts to zoom in. After a few seconds you begin to realise that it's zooming in further than you thought, and then before long you realise that it's apparently zooming in forever!

zoomquilt.org

Weird Google searches (part 4)

A few weeks ago in my 'Things that happen every second' article, I mentioned the weird Google search term...

'Dinosaurs were made up by the CIA to discourage time travel'

...which incredibly, gets 20 searches every month!

There are many more weird Google searches made every month, so here are a few more, starting with one search which makes me agree with Einstein that stupidity has no bounds...

1) "My PC is on fire"

...30 searches per month

Surprisingly, I didn't have a photo of a computer on fire,
so here are two separate photos of a computer and fire.

I can only say .... er, what!?  Presumably the people googling 'My PC is on fire' subsequently searched for...

'How do I treat burnt fingers?'

Being serious, if my laptop was on fire my first thought wouldn't be, 'Hmm, how I can put out the fire?  I know!  I'll google it!  Using my laptop that's on fire!'

If it was then presumably my next thought would be, 'Ow!  Ow!  Ouch!  That's hot!'

The screen licking pug

A helpful pug to answer all your questions...

A cute baby pug.
Please note, this pug isn't the actual 'screen licking pug'
and is used purely for illustrative purposes.

The Charles Fudgemuffin blog should perhaps be renamed the 'Charles Pugmuffin' blog, because last week's blog post featured ten cute pug photos to celebrate National Pug Day, and this week's post also has a pug theme to it.

It's an adaptation to a childish facebook prank I previously featured, whereby whenever your friends ask a question on facebook, you simply post a reply claiming that the following link provides a helpful solution to their problem:
www.smarturl.it/InfoPage216

However, in actual fact the above 'InfoPage216' link isn't helpful as all, and instead it sneakily redirects them to the 'screen licking pug'.

Here are a few examples to demonstrate...

Funny Google predictions quiz

Killer apples, pregnant men and bra wearing sons...

The world.
Find out how to save it with Google search.

One clever feature of Google Search is that Google learns from previous searches, and then uses this information to create its 'auto-complete' feature. This means that when you start typing a search term, Google will offer predictive suggestions of what it thinks you're about to type.

For example, if you type 'How To Save The', Google will offer predictive suggestions such as:

How To Save The World
How To Save The Rainforest
How To Save The Environment

Most of the time the auto-complete predictions are quite logical. However, on a few occasions they can be quite unexpectedly bizarre, so this week I've decided to highlight a few of these surprising Google suggestions in the form of a quiz.

The Broof Pirate: A childish facebook prank

The Broof Pirate, happy to help with all your facebook questions...

Most pirates carry a pirate sword like this one pictured,
but the Broof Pirate instead carries a bottle of Broof.

In the past on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I've featured a few daft childish pranks to play on facebook, and once again I thought I would mention an amusingly childish facebook prank. Most people will probably find this extremely childish, and also a bit surreal, so it'll only appeal to people who are extremely immature and easily amused, like myself for example.

The prank involves a link shortener to disguise the actual website link, and the link is www.smarturl.it/InfoPage468. The 'InfoPage468' reference makes it appear as if it links to some useful information, but in actual fact the link sneakily redirects to the 'Broof Pirate' website which is a ridiculous website featuring a pirate who makes funny 'broof' noises.

To play the prank, just wait until one of your facebook friends posts a question asking for advice, and then post a reply providing an allegedly 'helpful' link. However, instead of posting a helpful link, you instead post the disguised link to the Broof Pirate.

Here are a few examples based on questions posed on my own facebook feed...

10 cool internet Easter eggs (part 4)

Another selection of hidden internet tricks.

An artist's impression of an Easter egg
(non-internet variety).

As it's Easter I figured it would be the ideal time to round-up another selection of weird tricks and novelties (commonly known as Easter eggs) found hidden on various websites.

This latest batch includes Easter eggs inspired by Doctor Who, Star Wars, the end of the world and even myself, Charles Fudgemuffin! So read on to discover the latest selection of Easter eggs found hidden around the internet...

Update: This article was published in 2014. Sadly, many of the featured links and Easter eggs are no longer active. For examples where that is the case, I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it that they were really amusing Easter eggs. And as a word of advice, perhaps you should have got here sooner!

1) Doctor Who's Tardis spotted on Google Maps

First up is an Easter egg found on Google Maps which Doctor Who fans will appreciate. If you go to Earls Court Road in London you'll notice a police telephone box which looks suspiciously like the Tardis. If you hover your mouse over this telephone box and then press the 'up' arrow on your keyboard, you'll be transported inside of the Tardis!

You can find the exact map co-ordinates of the police telephone box at the following link:
Doctor's Who's Tardis spotted on Google Maps

Weird facebook likes (part 2)

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

A couple of months ago I featured a post on how I find it strange that sometimes people will update their facebook status with blatant bad news, and yet bizarrely some of their alleged friends will then 'like' it. There have been more facebook statuses along those lines since my original round-up and so I thought it was time for another collection of weird and inappropriate facebook likes.

I'll start things off straight away with a photo which illustrates what I'm getting at...

1) A few weeks ago the unpredictable English weather was at its worst once again and so during a recent camping trip, some friends unfortunately got caught in some pretty severe floods. To show people just how bad the flooding was, they uploaded the following photo of their campsite to facebook:

Your holiday has been ruined by torrential floods.
3 friends like this.

And unbelievably it got three likes!

Weird facebook likes (part 1)

A selection of inappropriate facebook likes...

Thumbs up for weird facebook likes.

One of the things I find strange about facebook is the way that people will sometimes post a status update which is clearly bad news, and yet loads of their alleged friends will 'like' the post. Sometimes I can't help thinking, 'Eh? Why are you liking that? That's obviously bad news.'

I'm talking about statuses along the lines of, 'Just got sacked from my job.' ...6 people like this. That sort of thing. That one was just a made-up example but there are plenty of real facebook statuses which are clearly bad news and yet people still seem to click the 'like' button for some reason.

I've rounded up a few examples to highlight what I'm referring to, and to start things off here's a very straight forward example which perfectly illustrates how the 'like' button often gets misused.

10 cool internet Easter eggs (part 3)

Another batch of hidden internet tricks for Easter.

Humpty Dumpty, the original Easter egg.

I love weird tricks and novelties you can sometimes find hidden on the internet, so from time to time I like to feature a selection of my favourite tricks (more commonly known as Easter eggs) on this blog.

As it's Easter this weekend I therefore thought it would be the perfect time to round-up another batch of cool internet Easter eggs in a post which I've creatively titled '10 Cool Internet Easter Eggs (Part 3)'.

1) The Harlem Shake on YouTube

First up is a really cool hidden internet Easter egg found on YouTube which gets into the spirit of the latest craze for uploading Harlem Shake videos to YouTube.  Go to YouTube and type 'do the Harlem Shake' into the search box, and as well as listing a selection of Harlem Shake videos, you'll find that YouTube also does a Harlem Shake of its own.

(Update: Sadly, this Easter egg is no longer active, but as you can probably guess, basically the whole screen shaked.)

Searching for Santa on Google

The curious nature of kids when using Google to investigate Santa.

Santa taking a well deserved break
from his present delivering duties.

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that as well as the Google search engine, Google also have a service known as the Google Keyword Tool which allows you to analyse how many searches a particular search term gets on Google every month.

Some of the search terms I discussed were the search term, ‘Is Santa real?’, which gets 301,000 searches every month from quizzical and possibly sceptical kids, and also, ‘What is Santa’s real phone number?’, which gets 320 searches per month.

As it’s only a few days until Christmas I therefore thought this would be an appropriate time to feature another post on Santa related searches on Google.

The most popular Santa themed Google search I could find was the massively popular, ‘Where is Santa at?’, which gets an incredible 83,100,000 searches every month. By comparison the search term, ‘What’s the true meaning of Christmas?’, gets a paltry 170 searches per month, so it’s nice to know that modern kids seem to have their priorities straight!

Santa Claus, camper vans and Swedish girls

An analysis of some unusual Google searches.

When most people think of Google they probably think first and foremost of the Google search engine, then maybe after that they perhaps think of things like Google Earth and Gmail.

Searching for Santa on Google.

However, another cool gizmo which Google have is the Google Keywords Tool which is a fun way to pass the time if you ever have a spare half hour or so (especially if you’re easily amused like me). It’s actually designed to help potential Google advertisers find useful key phrases to advertise on, but I use it to discover and explore some of the weird phrases that people actually search for on Google.

For example, did you know that every month 91 people actually search for:

10 more cool internet Easter eggs ... the sequel!

Another list of weird hidden features (or 'Easter eggs' as they’re known) from around the web.

 

Another batch of internet Easter Eggs.

One of my personal favourite posts on this blog was my '10 cool internet Easter eggs' post which lists hidden features and tricks found on the internet such as the YouTube snake, the Nyanit cat and even an update on the end of the world. There are many more hidden Easter eggs found on the internet though, so I thought it was about time I listed another ten cool internet Easter eggs in a post creatively entitled '10 more cool internet Easter eggs ... the sequel!'

1) ASCII Star Wars

Any Star Wars fans should definitely check out this first Easter egg. If you open up DOS (click on the Windows ‘Start’ button, then Run, then type ‘cmd’) then type:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

…you get to watch the entire Star Wars movie illustrated with ASCII text symbols!