Off-Topic: Google Sets

About as good a way to waste an hour or six as I've found recently is Google Sets, an experimental application that allows you to enter a few items from a set of things and then have the application attempt to predict other items in the set. My favorite result so far was when I plugged in...

• The Who
• Van Morrison
• Led Zeppelin
• Sex Pistols

(i.e., a few of my favorite musical artists, although they could also be said to belong to sets such as "musicians from the British Isles", "20th century pop artists", etc.)

...and got back...

• Sex Pistols
• The Who
• Led Zeppelin
• Van Morrison
• The Beatles
• Queen
• David Bowie
• Various Artists (!)
• U2
• Pink Floyd
• Bob Dylan
• Eric Clapton
• Radiohead
• Billy Joel
• Oasis

...and of course...

• Japanese pop sensation Hikaru Utada!

PS As another experiment, I put in the 1st 5 books discussed on this blog:

• Voice Of The Fire
• The Lord Of The Rings
• 1984
• Animal Farm
• 100 Wild Little Weird Tales

...and got back...

• The Lord Of The Rings
• Animal Farm
• 1984
• The Hobbit
• Lord Of The Flies
• Snow Crash
• Neuromancer
• Harry Potter
• To Kill A Mockingbird
• The Grapes Of Wrath
• Atlas Shrugged

So, who knows? Maybe we'll be discussing William Golding and Neal Stephenson next.