This is a common scenario for me. Yesterday, I came up with what I think is a great idea. As usual (I get great ideas often), I went to gandi.net to look for domain names appropriate for my idea. I found some great domains which I’m surprised are still available. But before plunking down the $20-$30 to order both the singular and plural version of the domain I wanted, I wandered over to Google to make sure no one else has created a website based on my idea.
This got me thinking. How many other people google for something like automatic rubber-chicken dance hit studio or the best idea ever just to see if anyone else is as genius as they imagine themselves to be? I do it at least once a week. With google these days gathering as much information about our habits as they are, why not steal our great ideas as well?
Here’s a rough algorithm:
(1) Identify “unique” search strings by noticing when a lack of high scoring results return for a search.
(2) Filter the unique strings by some genius logic.
(3) Hire post-docs to browse through the string for that next big thing.
Take note.