[pflenker]

I can relate. Ages ago, before Safe Search and search result tailored to one‘s history and preferences, I was trying to figure out how to write that big union symbol (∪) in LaTeX and googled for Big Cup LaTeX. I got _very_ different and unexpected results.

[ssl-3]

Eons ago, I was exploring ways to run some outdoor overhead wire between my house and the shed.

One method I considered involved using those little self-wedging widgets that squeeze down tighter as the thing being suspended is pulled harder. (These widgets were once commonly used with overhead POTS telephone lines.)

So I asked around and the broad consensus in my area was that one of these widgets is called a "horse cock."

And while everyone who knew what I was talking could say it with a very straight face, I did not even bother with trying to Google "horse cock" before deciding to go in a different direction with that project.

[gnopgnip]

Is that the same as a kellums grip or hubbell device?

[ssl-3]

A Kellems grip is a Chinese finger trap-like thing made with steel wire. Those are useful, but are very different from a horse cock.

A horse cock can also be known as an overhead service entrance wedge clamp, which is a surprising mouthful of nomenclature given the parlancial context.

(I don't know what a Hubbell device is -- searching for that just brings up a million wiring devices (outlets, switches, and such) made by Hubbell.

But maybe that's the point?)

[vundercind]

Googling guitar-related stuff is how I learned there’s such a thing as c-string women’s underwear & bathing suit bottoms, not just g-strings.

That was, briefly, a real WTF moment.

[edit] oh my god, of course that one didn’t come from searching guitar topics, that makes no sense given the standard tuning. I’m pretty sure I was googling strings in the C language when I hit that one, lol. I did probably accidentally land on “g string” after searching without thinking about what would obviously come up, when looking up guitar topics, and must have combined the two incidents in my memory.

[scubbo]

Haha - my favourite WTF Googling moment was when, as a callow youth first setting out in learning Javascript and HTML, I Googled "How to get head"

[eesmith]

Back in the mid-1990s I extracted a small part of the GNU C++ String library into a small package, which I called "GString".

I had no idea about the garment.

[Archelaos]

This reminds me of the time when searching for “c string” would probably result in “The C Programming Language” at number 1.

[rahkiin]

That’s what I get right now

[dhosek]

In the early days of the internet, searching for things like C++ was really challenging because none of the first generation search engines could search for that particular string.

[moomin]

Back in the day, a gay colleague of mine forgot the dash in the website of the then trading venue Chi-X. He got a very threatening page in his browser. I assured him I'd back him up in the disciplinary.

What was particularly funny was his look of complete incomprehension at why he was getting this message.

[stroop]

I once noticed a LaTeX installer installing a package called he/she (apparently some sort of pronoun swapper). "Latex he/she" is not great for work search history.