Google Synonym Interpretation gone wrong.

Whats the Issue?

Earlier today, I cam across an interesting Tweet:

Baffled. Any ideas?? RT @WEBOSIS: Came across a seemingly non-sensical Google search result. Can anyone explain? Query: popkick vs enlight

— CK Chung (@cKdisco) April 6, 2015

For those wondering or too lazy – these are the results for the query:

Isn’t that interesting?

Why is google showing those results?

Actually the solution is simpler than google bombing or a number of other theories that I have seen – lets look at the screenshot again:

Basically google is reinterpreting those two phrases with its own synonym prediction:

Popkick = Footloose

Enlight = English

The odd thing is two words made this coincidence a lot more glaring – not convinced? See what happens when I type in “popkick kevin ba” and what google suggests:

Or when you google “enlight webster”

See the bolded word “English” in the mix? ?

In a 2012 interview, Matt said:

 “Keyphrases don’t have to be in their original form. We do a lot of synonyms work so that we can find good pages that don’t happen to use the same words as the user typed.”

The use of closely aligned words is what could have triggered this result.

How can I use it?

So interesting, but when you find gaps in the search engine algo, the first question – how can I use it?  Well there are a few ways. I have a post and a tool brewing, so please subscribe to the newsletter to know how to best use stuff like this to your best advantage. I would also like to hat tip Dan Barker who discovered the same thing as I did in a private discussion, just seconds after I did..