by Andy Rams

Created on: July 11, 2009

Google's own way to show the world and its critics in the early days of its introduction was including an 'I'm feeling lucky' search button in its otherwise minimalist UI. It's function? To automatically take the user to the first page in the search results, instead of displaying a list of search results. It was a way of saying "Look, we are a search engine that actually works". For the entire article, refer to:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/ 11/19/face_of_google/

What is more important is that you are taken to the first page ranked according to relevance, links and various other parameters that Google uses to order search results, not the first sponsored result. This means that Google doesn't get to show search related ads on 1% of all its searches. That costs the company around $110 million in annual revenue, according to Rapt's Tom Chavez.

Why 'I'm feeling lucky'? "The reason it's called 'I'm Feeling Lucky,' is of course that's a pretty damn ambitious goal. I mean to get the exact right one thing without even giving you a list of choices, and so you have to feel a little bit lucky if you're going to try that with one go," as Sergey Brin tries to explain.

Will Google evolve to a point where every search will 'make you feel lucky'? One can never really tell, but unit then, here are some ways to be lucky with Google search:

1) On the Google search page, enter your search term and click I'm feeling lucky. You will be taken to the most relevant page.

2) If you have Safari, set the default Keywurl search to http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Luck y&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q= and Google will automatically use 'Lucky' search on any terms typed into the address bar.

http://lifehacker.com/360569/add-keyword-search-to-s afari-with-keywurl

3) If you have any Firefox browser version in the 3 series, Google is the default search engine and the address bar provides name lookup. It functions exactly like the Google toolbar for IE: if you vaguely remember the website name, type the terms into the address bar and Google will automatically take you to the website that is the best match.

Firefox 2 and IE 7 natively provide 'lucky' search from the address bar. If you desire name lookup, you may change URL preference (keyword.URL) to http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

4) You can set the Firefox 3 address field to automatically use 'lucky' search by changing the URL preference

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