(Google)

Google Autofill FTW: One way r/trees has ‘ruined reddit for the arborists’

Oftentimes Google’s Autofill feature teaches us things about ourselves and our surroundings in startlingly accurate ways.

Autofill is Google’s automatic text population feature that fills in the search bar as you’re typing what you’re Googling. Try it yourself: Type in, “Why is weed” — and you’ll see its autocorrect options, which are surely based on some sort of algorithm rooted in past searches.

The results on my “Why is weed” search came back … “illegal” … “bad for you” … “called pot” … “good for you” … “called loud.” So we’re led to believe that those are popular searches on Google. Hm.

One astute redditor on r/trees — reddit’s de facto marijuana section, or subreddit — noticed that when you ask Google for a “subreddit about …” some Internet searchers are looking for a subreddit about *actual trees* — not a subreddit labeled “trees” solely about the best dab spot of the day.

That’s very, very smart, Google.

From imgur under the headline “Guys…I think we’ve ruined reddit for the arborists:”



Keen eye, ents. And it turns out reddit already knew about this, as they have r/sfwtrees, “the largest arboriculture community on reddit … for tree- and forestry-related posts,” and r/arbors, where they “like to talk about actual trees, a community of arborists, foresters, urban foresters, and loggers. (hobbyists or professionals).” There are others, too. And in an odd twist, r/marijuanaenthusiasts is about actual trees — “all things dendrologic!”

Meanwhile this guy really wants to know: “I can’t find the real subreddit for trees because the name ‘trees’ is taken by a bunch of hippy-ass stoners.”