Shmoogle (2005)

Shmoogle was created to explore how the notion of chaos could be translated to the internet.
It has become a powerful statement on the current epistemological processes that shape our most basic decisions.

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Shmoogle is a random search engine. The user types in a query, the Shmoogle engine fetches all of Google's results for that query and presents them in random order.

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Sample: Shmoogle search for "Art"

For Shmoogle, all results are equal; they're all displayed on a single scroll-down page. Each result shows its original Google ranking. Shmoogle is also non-deterministic; Repeating the same query will produce the same results but in a different random order.

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By randomly ordering the results, the user gets back the right to vote. The user decides which is more important and which is less. Presenting all results on a single page encourages the user to browse through more results than she would typically do on a regular search engine, thus giving her an instant survey of available information.

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If Google is a search engine, Shmoogle is a research engine.

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Shmoogle has been widely presented and debated in conferences and workshops across Europe, the US, and Israel. It has been featured in magazines, daily newspapers, and countless blogs.

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