A Google Version of Family Feud Challenges How Much You Know About How Other People Think

Long-running game show Family Feud's addictiveness is in its simple structure: Can you guess how other people would respond to a question? It doesn't test what its contestants know — it tests whether they understand other people.

A new game asks a very 2015 version of the question that has led to Feud's success: Can you guess how other people would Google? That's the premise of Google Feud, a game by writer Justin Hook that uses autocomplete results from the world's biggest search engine and puts them in the Family Feud board format.

Google Feud, not officially affiliated with either the game show or the search engine, nonetheless plays by the show's rules: Guess the most frequently Googled queries until you come up with the top ten. Give three wrong answers and the round ends. It's simple enough, which makes it all the more addictive. 

Possibly because of an unexpected spike in traffic, the game has been working on and off all day — often, it declares all answers incorrect and doesn't show results upon completion — but assuming it becomes functional again soon, it's a potential gold mine. 

The selling points are numerous: Instead of having to wait to catch an episode of the actual show, anyone working on a computer now has access to this perfect distraction. More than that, it's a way to feel connected to other people — "Is how I would Google the same way others would?" — while doing a very isolated activity. And, of course, seeing the answers one couldn't possibly have guessed is always good for a laugh. 

What does "I think my dad is batman onesie" mean? Luckily, it's just one Google search away to find out — and to learn a little bit more about how other people use Google.

Of course, then again, if you go with Google Feud over Family Feud, you miss out on gold like this: