Autocomplete A-Z

[Michael Wallace]

So when you type in a url into a browser (I presume this is more general than in Firefox), it will suggest websites that you frequently visit that start with the letters you type in. (Rubbish explanation, but hopefully we're all familiar enough with it to know what I'm talking about.) I presume that the most regularly-viewed site is the one that appears at the top, and so I sometimes like to see what are the most popular websites I view for each letter of the alphabet.

This is probably far too much effort and far too uninteresting for most people, but I'm hoping some of you will be as desperate to procrastinate as me, so here's my A-Z:

A: apterous
B: BBC iPlayer
C: c4c
D: di.fm (for when I need to actually do some work, so I listen to generic trance music)
E: eBay
F: facebook
G: google
H: A Texas Hold'em odds calculator
I: Information about recycling (Islington Council website)
J: spong.com/joypod - a video game podcast
K: The EPL 'I Know The Score' game
L: last.fm
M: An iPlayer search for Masterchef (I am so cool)
N: BBC News
O: Oxfam
P: Fantasy premier league game
Q: iPlayer search for Pointles (q just gives me a load of iPlayer searches, with this apparently being the most popular)
R: BBC Radio 2 (the top 5 are Radios 1-5, and they vary in order from time to time)
S: shirt.woot.com - t-shirts!!!
T: TFL
U: iPlayer search for University Challenge
V: Films showing at a particular Vue cinema (which I've only been to once in about a year, V is clearly not popular)
W: BBC weather
X: xkcd
Y: youtube
Z: Some random email from my gmail (basically there don't seem to be any actual sites I visit that start with Z)

So there you go. A lot that will be common to most people I'd expect, but some random things too. On retrospect, really quite boring, but never mind. NOW IT'S YOUR TURN.

[Charlie Reams]

I switched browsers recently so this is probably not very representative, but anyway, here you go.

apterous
bbc.co.uk
c4c
docs.google.com
ebay
facebook
google
hppodcraft.com (haven't visited this for about a year, guess h isn't a popular letter)
imdb
johannhari.com (Guardian writer's blog)
kingdomofloathing.com (online video game, I play a bit every few days)
lovefilm
mail.google.com
nwolb.com (Natwest Online Banking)
offer.ebay.co.uk (not sure what this actually is, some section of eBay)
paypal
q -- nothing, oddly
richardwiseman.files.wordpress.com (amusing puzzly blog)
Slashdot (yep, I'm old-school)
track.postoffice.co.uk
usembassy.co.uk (visa application stuff)
videogameshotdog.com (new video game podcast)
www.facebook.com (yeah this is stupid but there weren't any that really start with w)
xkcd
youtube
zara.com (nothing to do with me!)

[Ryan Taylor]

Hmmm I just wondered...when you type into google I thought it was the most popular links searched for by one the web rather than on my laptop? Is that right or is it simply what I've searched for? Because I was going to turn this into a quiz quite a while back.


Wait just reread OP and you said url. Forgive me. Btw I don't ever type websites in url, I am in a terrible habit (or maybe not so terrible) where I just go to Google and type in whatever website I'm after. If I click the drop down arrow for the url bar there is actually nothing displayed there. Anyone else not type into the url?

[Rhys Benjamin]

Apterous' old chatlogs
Martin Brundle's Racing Lines
c4countdown - Index page
Daily Mail (odd, since I only looked at it once)
Wikipedia - Duel & Duality
Fulham FC
Google
Apterous' old chat logs (because I once typed the http and it came up with that)
Ikea
School Emails
Kate Middleton
Let Me Google That For You
Vue home
BBC News
ODEON cinemas
PayPal
Quidco!?
Roots on the web (for my Dad)
Survey Monkey
Team Generator
UK Polling Report
Vidcad
Episode M13 on the Countdown wiki
The X Factor 2010
YouTube
This Topic!

[Joseph Krol]

Let's see then...
Apterous
Bingleygrammar.freeforums.org (a forum I run for peeps at my school (yes I am such a cheapo that I left the freeforums bit on (this is an absurd amount of brackets)))
C4C
Down for everyone or just me
Wikipedia Project 'Missing Encyclopaedic Articles'
Facebook
Guess-a-sketch (some weird website my sister goes on)
Hotmail
A google search for 'Famous places in Canada'
Joindave.co.uk
Kongregate
A google search for 'Libya current death toll'
A google search for 'Missing dollar problem'
Newsround (odd, since I haven't gone on that since I was about 9)
A google search for 'random orderer'
Paypal
Qwop
A google search for 'Royal wedding'
A google search for 'Scrabble word lists'
Twitter (odd, since I don't have an account)
Google search for 'UPS logistics song'
Vodafone
Wikipedia
Xbox
Youtube
Google search for 'zodiac sign saggitarius [sic] dates'

How odd.

[Phil Reynolds]

1. www.amazon.co.uk/Adoptive-Boy-Gordon-Forbes/dp/086332648X
   The last book I bought on Amazon. Found it while trying to trace some family history - it was written by a cousin of my mother's.
2. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=Pointless
   'Nuff said.
3. chezjallot.com
   A B&B in France where we're spending a couple of nights this summer.
4. www.darrenscottmusic.co.uk
   A composer friend of mine.
5. www.edenplace.co.uk
   A site I created for a local nursing home.
6. www.freetetris.org
   A game I spend too much time playing.
7. gardensbysue.co.uk
   Sue Sanders' website - another of my creations.
8. www.loft-theatre.co.uk
   A local theatre and a site I spend a lot of time maintaining. Came up with the 'h' of 'http' highlighted.
9. www.itv.com/entertainment/thechase
   Spent a while there trying to fill in their crappy online application form.
10. www.gamedesign.jp/flash/card/card.html
    Another game I spend too much time playing.
11. www.hsbc.co.uk
    Where I do my business banking.
12. www.lwms.co.uk
    Leamington & Warwick Musical Society, a site I maintain.
13. maps.google.co.uk
    Gotta love Streetview.
14. philreynolds.org.uk/nanaknipe
    A site I created for my family to share memories of my Nana.
15. www.oxforddictionaries.com
    The Bible.
16. philreynolds.org.uk
    My place.
17. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=Pointless
    Again.
18. rugbytheatre.co.uk
    Another local theatre.
19. www.gamedesign.jp/flash/card/card.html
    That game again (came up with the 'S' in 'SOLITAIRE' highlighted - one of a few where it autocompletes on the title rather than the URL).
20. theaa.com
    Go Routefinder!
21. uk.weather.com
    For the 10-day forecast.
22. voice123.com
    A voiceover site I get occasional work from.
23. wiki.apterous.org/Series_62
    This is one of those 'self-reinforcing' autocompletes. It stays top of the list because at some point I've typed 'w' into the URL bar, selected this page and then navigated from there to the Wiki page I really wanted. So now every time I hit 'w' it assumes I *really* like this page.
24. www.amazon.co.uk/Adoptive-Boy-Gordon-Fo ... 648[b][u]X[/u][/b]
    Same as A.
25. uk.youtube.com
    Self-explanatory.
26. a random file in my cache (the only URL in the list that had 'file' instead of 'http' as the protocol).

[Charlie Reams]

[*]wiki.apterous.org/Series_62
This is one of those 'self-reinforcing' autocompletes. It stays top of the list because at some point I've typed 'w' into the URL bar, selected this page and then navigated from there to the Wiki page I really wanted. So now every time I hit 'w' it assumes I *really* like this page.

Argh yes! Annoying feature of the Awesome Bar. I usually type wiki URLs manually rather than using their Search feature, so it's annoying that the browser won't remember the root URL.

[Ben Wilson]

a- Mozilla Firefox Start Page
b- Mozilla Firefox Start Page
c- Countdown in Lincoln- results
d- c4countdown
e- Mozilla Firefox Start Page
f- Mozilla Firefox Start Page
g- Google Images
h- Facebook
i- C4countdown- index page
j- C4countdown- view topic- Dog Eat Dog Tournament May-June 2011 - apply here
k: UK:Resistance
l: BT Yahoo Mail
m: Mozilla Firefox Start Page
n: maze30cfinished.png
o: Mozilla Firefox Start Page
p: Mozilla Firefox Start Page
q: GameFAQs
r: Mozilla Firefox Start Page
s: Mozilla Firefox Start Page
t: BT Yahoo Mail
u: C4countdown- index page
v: C4countdown- view forum- apterous.org
w: Facebook
x: Xbox 360 cheats- GameFAQs
y: BT Yahoo Mail
z: Zero Punctuation

In case you're wondering, every time I go afk I click back to the homepage for privacy purposes.

[Soph K]

Amazon (Dad sometimes buys things off Amazon. It wasn't Apterous because I have bookmarked it so all it takes to go to Apterous is a click - I don't type it into the search engine.)
BBC
Currys (Dad probably typed this in too, and I have c4countdown bookmarked as well.)
Daily Mail (I typed this in...not! Dad again!)
Ebay (Dad has little phases of going on Ebay a lot, normally when he's selling something on there.)
Facebook (Probably Joseph's search - he's the only one in our family who's on Facebook.)
Google
Hotmail (Now this one was probably mine!)
Ikea (you'll never guess who searched this...Dad!)
John Lewis (Who was it this time? Easy - Dad.)
Kate Middleton (Probably Mum...or was it Joseph?!)
Lotto (Not sure with this one actually; no-one in our family plays the Lottery.)
MSN (Might've been Mum, but normally when she goes on the computer, it's for work...)
Next (Would've been Mum, she gets clothes from Next, or it could've been Dad getting Mum a present from Next.)
O2 (Dad once again - his phone's the only one in our family on O2.)
Paypal (Guess who? Dad!)
Quidco (Surprise surprise, Dad.)
Rightmove (Could've been Dad but if it was about moving house then I'm not sure, does it remember things from 8 years ago? (We moved 8 years ago.))
Skype (Would've been Joseph when he was seeing if he could connect with some of our grandparents' friends who moved to Australia.)
Tesco (Dad.)
Utube (Now whoever typed this in - and it was not me - needs to go back to primary school for English lessons!)
Vodafone (I assume this was, too, Dad. He's probably the only one in our family who could be bothered to search stuff like that.)
Wikipedia (I have searched it for homework once or twice but this was mainly Joseph, I suspect.)
XE (No idea what that is...any ideas??)
Youtube (Spelt correctly now - they must've used my advice and got tutored again for English! I go on Youtube sometimes, but always spell it right, honest!)
Zara (What is Zara? I have heard of it vaguely before but...?!?)

[Soph K]

Let's see then...
Apterous
Bingleygrammar.freeforums.org (a forum I run for peeps at my school (yes I am such a cheapo that I left the freeforums bit on (this is an absurd amount of brackets)))
C4C
Down for everyone or just me
Wikipedia Project 'Missing Encyclopaedic Articles'
Facebook
Guess-a-sketch (some weird website my sister goes on)
Hotmail
A google search for 'Famous places in Canada'
Joindave.co.uk
Kongregate
A google search for 'Libya current death toll'
A google search for 'Missing dollar problem'
Newsround (odd, since I haven't gone on that since I was about 9)
A google search for 'random orderer'
Paypal
Qwop
A google search for 'Royal wedding'
A google search for 'Scrabble word lists'
Twitter (odd, since I don't have an account)
Google search for 'UPS logistics song'
Vodafone
Wikipedia
Xbox
Youtube
Google search for 'zodiac sign saggitarius [sic] dates'

How odd.

Wonder why most of yours are different to mine? Ah, you probably did it on the laptop and I did mine on the computer!

[Mike Brown]

Half of mine are empty, most are pretty dull, but here goes...

A http://www.apterous.org/cdb/recapwriter.php?format=9 (must be all those historical recaps!)
B http://www.bt.com/faults (my mum's got a problem with her phone at the moment)
C http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/ (of course!)
E http://www.efezone.co.uk/ (model bus site)
F http://www.facebook.com/ (predictably)
G http://www.google.co.uk/ (ditto)
H http://hmv.com/ (window shopping for CDs & DVDs)
I http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/ (looking for exciting gifts - not for the wedding!)
M http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ (bit of a weather geek on the QT, but not as much as Dan Peake!)
P http://www.play.com/ (see H)
S http://www.ss-motors.co.uk/ (local fuel oil supplier - exciting!)
T http://www.thecountdownpage.com/ (remember that?)
W http://wiki.apterous.org/ (see A)

[Soph K]

Half of mine are empty, most are pretty dull, but here goes...

A http://www.apterous.org/cdb/recapwriter.php?format=9 (must be all those historical recaps!)
B http://www.bt.com/faults (my mum's got a problem with her phone at the moment)
C http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/ (of course!)
E http://www.efezone.co.uk/ (model bus site)
F http://www.facebook.com/ (predictably)
G http://www.google.co.uk/ (ditto)
H http://hmv.com/ (window shopping for CDs & DVDs)
I http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/ (looking for exciting gifts - not for the wedding!)
M http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ (bit of a weather geek on the QT, but not as much as Dan Peake!)
P http://www.play.com/ (see H)
S http://www.ss-motors.co.uk/ (local fuel oil supplier - exciting!)
T http://www.thecountdownpage.com/ (remember that?)
W http://wiki.apterous.org/ (see A)

Why do you not have that many? Well, yes, you probably just don't go on things that begin with every letter of the alphabet, but D, L and R are missing and they're fairly common letters!

[Ryan Taylor]

Sophie you know you typed in the letters on Google search engine. They are the same ones that come up on mine, Michael was on about the url bar bit.

[Ryan Taylor]

Turns out I do have websites saved:
A = Apterous
B = Google Books
C = Google
D = I would rather not mention
E = Google books
F = Coutdown forum
G = Google
H = Facebook
I = Countdown forum
J = Again, rather not say
K = Amazon UK
L = Yep, rather not say again
M = And again
N = c4countdown - view new posts
O = Apterous
P = Countdown forum
Q = Google books
R = *ahem* yep you guessed it
S = c4countdown - view new posts
T = Apterous - the game
U = Google
V = c4countdown - view new posts
X = Wouldn't you know, X.
Y = And Y.
Z = Surely not Z? Yup, Z as well.

This is pretty revealing and accurate as to how shit my life is. I spend all day playing apterous, refreshing the new posts topic on c4countdown, whilst checking facebook the occasional glance at amazon and some other special websites. Oh, and I use Google books all the time to do essays because I can't be fucked with going to the library. Thanks Michael for this.

[Soph K]

Sophie you know you typed in the letters on Google search engine. They are the same ones that come up on mine, Michael was on about the url bar bit.

ohhhhhhhhh well i cant be bothered to do it all again

[Jon O'Neill]

Turns out I do have websites saved:
A = Apterous
B = Google Books
C = Google
D = I would rather not mention
E = Google books
F = Coutdown forum
G = Google
H = Facebook
I = Countdown forum
J = Again, rather not say
K = Amazon UK
L = Yep, rather not say again
M = And again
N = c4countdown - view new posts
O = Apterous
P = Countdown forum
Q = Google books
R = *ahem* yep you guessed it
S = c4countdown - view new posts
T = Apterous - the game
U = Google
V = c4countdown - view new posts
X = Wouldn't you know, X.
Y = And Y.
Z = Surely not Z? Yup, Z as well.

This is pretty revealing and accurate as to how shit my life is. I spend all day playing apterous, refreshing the new posts topic on c4countdown, whilst checking facebook the occasional glance at amazon and some other special websites. Oh, and I use Google books all the time to do essays because I can't be fucked with going to the library. Thanks Michael for this.

lol

Ok, here's mine, pretty boring though.
a, amazon
b, betfair
c, c4c
d, docs.google.com
e, ebay
f, facebook
g, pokemon leaf green walkthrough on gamefaqs
h, hotmail
i, iplayer
j, http://twitter.com/#!/@cjdemooi
k, ebay again
l, lyndhurstcc.co.uk, my cricket team's website
m, http://myp2p.eu/, good site for telling what sports's available to be illegally streamed
n, neopets (girlfriend)
o, ebay again
p, pokemon moveset searcher, used to see which pokemon can learn the most HMs in the aforementioned gameboy advance classic.
q, pokemon walkthrough again
r, redandwhitekop, liverpool forum
s, sharkscope.com, a poker results tracker
t, tfl.gov.uk
u, ebay again
v, 2p2, a poker forum
w, amazon
x, xkcd
y, youtube
z, zombie by the cranberries on youtube. love this song.

Pretty dull

[Charlie Reams]

some other special websites.

Ever heard of private browsing/Incognito mode?

[Oliver Garner]

A - aqa (exam board)
B - btinternet... (London Scrabble League)
C - Centrestar (Scrabble game/tournament library)
D - Windows Live Mail
E - Edexcel (another exam board)
F - Fantasy Premier League
G - Google search for 'Greek script on Word'
H - Harambee Running (running group)
I - None of significance
J - Justin Bieber (yes that's right, I think I searched it last night to see to what extent there was facial similarity between him and the kid on BGT)
K - Kingston and Poly (local athletics club which I used to be part of
L - Windows Live Mail
M - Yahoo Mail
N - BBC Weather
O - School email
P - Parkrun
Q - c4c
R - Richard Dawkins
S - South West Trains
T - thepowerof10 (athletics rankings)
U - urbandictionary
V - School 'learning platform'
X - c4c
Y - Youthscrabble
Z - Google search for Zyzzyva
Have lied a tiny bit

[Jon O'Neill]

J - Justin Bieber

Have lied a tiny bit

I think you lied wrong.

[Kai Laddiman]

P - Parkrun

Have lied a tiny bit

[Oliver Garner]

I think you lied wrong.

The rest are worse

[Craig Beevers]

D = I would rather not mention

Mine's worse, I get the Daily Mail for D. I boycott them and their website, for amongst other things publishing front pages with things like "Asperger's victim" on them. So I've no idea why it comes up.

Anyway:

A = Argos
B = BBC
C = Currys
D = Daily Mail
E = Ebay
F = Facebook
G = Google
H = Hotmail
I = Ikea
J = John Lewis
K = Kate Middleton
L = Lottery
M = MSN
N = Next
O = O2
P = Paypal
Q = Quidco
R = Rightmove
S = Sky
T = Tesco
U = 'Utube'
V = Virgin
W = Wikipedia
X = XE
Y = Youtube
Z = Zara

[Mike Brown]

Half of mine are empty, most are pretty dull, but here goes...

Why do you not have that many? Well, yes, you probably just don't go on things that begin with every letter of the alphabet, but D, L and R are missing and they're fairly common letters!

I don't visit that many different places regularly; I probably google everything else (or it's in my favourites).

And isn't it funny how people seem to have the Daily Mail in their list, but they feel really guilty or defensive about it? Bit like reading it, really.

[Oliver Garner]

And isn't it funny how people seem to have the Daily Mail in their list, but they feel really guilty or defensive about it? Bit like reading it, really.

I only read the comments. They tell you more about Britain/the world than the articles themselves, especially from those who claim they live in the EUSSR.

[Oliver Garner]

P - Parkrun

Have lied a tiny bit

Not at all, I use porn sites which start with a different letter (the ones I've lied about).

Only joking. Most of the ones I've lied about are actually Google searches for lyrics to songs, thus revealing to you my shit taste in music.

[Phil Reynolds]

A = Argos
B = BBC
C = Currys
D = Daily Mail
[...]
Y = Youtube
Z = Zara

Haha, someone else who misread the OP.

[Charlie Reams]

A = Argos
B = BBC
C = Currys
D = Daily Mail
[...]
Y = Youtube
Z = Zara

Haha, someone else who misread the OP.

If you use Chrome it sometimes suggests popular searches above pages from your history, so it's not necessarily wrong as such. I skipped over them to make it more interesting.

[Phil Reynolds]

A = Argos
B = BBC
[...]
Y = Youtube
Z = Zara

Haha, someone else who misread the OP.

If you use Chrome it sometimes suggests popular searches above pages from your history, so it's not necessarily wrong as such.

I just A-LOLed at the fact that Craig didn't appear to smell a rat when his list of most frequently/recently visited sites turned out to be identical to Soph K's.

[Soph K]

lol

[Ryan Taylor]

some other special websites.

Ever heard of private browsing/Incognito mode?

Haha, nope, I don't mind though as I am the only one who uses this laptop.

D = I would rather not mention

Mine's worse, I get the Daily Mail for D. I boycott them and their website, for amongst other things publishing front pages with things like "Asperger's victim" on them. So I've no idea why it comes up.

maybe you love the Mail after all! Although like said, it's because it's popular with Googlers and that rather than what you've been on.

[Phil Reynolds]

some other special websites.

And to think I was embarrassed because a mere two results on my list involved playing solitaire.

[Soph K]

Turns out I do have websites saved:
A = Apterous
B = Google Books
C = Google
D = I would rather not mention
J = Again, rather not say
L = Yep, rather not say again
M = And again
R = *ahem* yep you guessed it
X = Wouldn't you know, X.
Y = And Y.
Z = Surely not Z? Yup, Z as well.
some other special websites

And I wonder what these "special websites" that you'd rather not tell us are, hmm? Come on, Ryan, tell us, pleeease! I'm so eager to know now, you should've just missed the ones you'd rather not mention out, then I wouldn't be so eager as to know what websites they are!!

[Michael Wallace]

And I wonder what these "special websites" that you'd rather not tell us are, hmm? Come on, Ryan, tell us, pleeease! I'm so eager to know now, you should've just missed the ones you'd rather not mention out, then I wouldn't be so eager as to know what websites they are!!

I'm guessing this is R.

[Soph K]

And I wonder what these "special websites" that you'd rather not tell us are, hmm? Come on, Ryan, tell us, pleeease! I'm so eager to know now, you should've just missed the ones you'd rather not mention out, then I wouldn't be so eager as to know what websites they are!!

I'm guessing this is R.

Haha that is such a random, weird website!

[Ryan Taylor]

And I wonder what these "special websites" that you'd rather not tell us are, hmm? Come on, Ryan, tell us, pleeease! I'm so eager to know now, you should've just missed the ones you'd rather not mention out, then I wouldn't be so eager as to know what websites they are!!

I'm guessing this is R.

Hahah, the ratemypoo one is better. Yet to upload to that though.

[Kirk Bevins]

Btw I don't ever type websites in url, I am in a terrible habit (or maybe not so terrible) where I just go to Google and type in whatever website I'm after. If I click the drop down arrow for the url bar there is actually nothing displayed there. Anyone else not type into the url?

Is this because you don't want it to come up with porn sites in the last few visited sites? I have this habit as well...but only for the aforementioned

[Ryan Taylor]

Btw I don't ever type websites in url, I am in a terrible habit (or maybe not so terrible) where I just go to Google and type in whatever website I'm after. If I click the drop down arrow for the url bar there is actually nothing displayed there. Anyone else not type into the url?

Is this because you don't want it to come up with porn sites in the last few visited sites? I have this habit as well...but only for the aforementioned

It's more to do with my thought that Google is the god of the internet and only google will direct me to websites.