Google "Art" - See What Happens

Today’s Image
The GoogleTM Logo

Google is ubiquitous, at least for me; it’s my “home page” when I go online, and it seems I’m always using it for something. OrbisPlanis is even published by Blogger, although I’ve checked out WordPress, which looks like an excellent alternative for blogging, too.

Anyway, since the OrbisPlanis art blog is all about art, I wondered what would happen when I Googled just the term “art.” Google is somewhat famous for its list of “Top 10 Hits” when you Google something.


Here’s what you get, at least on June 4, 2009, around noon, US CDT:

1. Art.com – Poster, Art Prints, and Framed Art Leader: It’s a commercial website that sells all kinds of art and posters and frames online. (Don’t you wish you had the rights to use the URL Art.com!?)



2. Deviant Art –Where Art Meets Application: I was so sure this was going to be a pornographic site, so I was really surprised to find that it appears to be just an online art store where you can sell your art; it appears to sell art-oriented clothing, too. It says it’s the “largest art community in the world!” Who knew? (Whew!)



3. Art- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia is everywhere! I can’t figure out why anyone would want to look up the term “art” though. (Talk about ubiquitous…)



4. News results for art: I had no clue what this was going to be, but it turned out to be Google News that I’m guessing was tagged with the search term ”art.” The headline on the first story was “Artery Exhibit Prompts an Art Attack in Arkansas (a US state) Town.” (OMG!)



5. Artcyclopedia, the Fine Art Search Engine: Its tagline is “The Guide to Great Art on the Internet.” It looks like you can do a look up by artist name, artwork title, or location as well as clicking on their long list of Art Movements (from abstract expressionism to ukiyo-e printmaking) or Most Popular Artist from Last Month. (Looks useful I’ll have to try it.)



6. Applied Research and Technology, Inc.: This is the commercial site for ArtProAudio, which sells all kinds of electronic equipment (power amps, graphic equalizers) for producing music, and nothing to do with visual or graphic art. (Totally out of place, but must be popular to be ranked no. 6 in the wrong category.)



7. Art Net –also known as Art on the Net: This site says, “Join fellow artists in sharing art from the source, the artists themselves. We are Artists helping artists come online to the Internet and the WWWeb;” there are several links, such as artist studios, gallery rooms, and artist resources. (Looks interesting; I’ll have to check it out.)



8. Arts in the Yahoo! Directory: This is just a Yahoo directory page with a whole lot of art categories to link to, such as artists, design arts, art history, visual arts, museums and galleries. (Boring…)



9. eBay-Art, Original Art and Paintings Items on eBay.com: In addition to the link being ungrammatical, this is just an eBay directory page with links to art, artists, and other art-related things similar to the Yahoo directory. (I’ll say it again, boring…)



10. Contemporary Arts Museum Houston: Now, I don’t know if it’s just coincidental or what, but I was very surprised that this was the no. 9 hit. Not that the CAMH isn’t worthy of being no.9, I’ve been there, and it very much is; it’s just that I would have expected the Musee d’ Orsay or the Getty or the Guggenheim to get more hits. (Unexpected.)



11. What Is Art? Google Books Result: I wasn’t expecting this at all—the site contains the whole book-- What Is Art? --by Count Lyof N. Tolstoi translated into English from Russian. You can download it as a PDF, too. (Isn’t it odd that so many people Google “what is art?” It is to me…)

I know, I know, there are 11 top hits on the first page rather than 10. Google must have erred. And with tongue firmly in cheek, I was shocked not to see the OrbisPlanis Art Blog in Google’s “Top 10 Hits.” But tomorrow is a new day, and maybe Google will get it right!

Cheers!