Is Google not giving you the results you’re looking for? Are you a big fan of the rapper Drake? Well, thanks to the wonders of the internet, there’s now a new site that might be just right for you.
Let Me Drake That For You runs almost exactly like Google, but with one very notable exception that becomes clear once you start searching. Unlike the tech giant, which has algorithms based around news items and what’s trending on the internet, LMDTFY (for short, as Drake tends to do) finds results that are tied back to the rapper, no matter what you search for.
For example, a search for “science” in the engine turns up listings for the Drake Planetarium and Science Center and a writer at Wired named Nadia Drake. Unlike Google, it only provided a handful of suggestions, but there were all “Drake” related...though not necessarily with the rapper. Created by developer Tyler Smith, the site seems to have no purpose behind it, other than for pure fun.
Drake’s popularity seems to be growing every day, and LMDTFY is just the latest sign that he may end up being one of our generation’s great hip-hop talents. The rapper charted his third number one album earlier this year when he uploaded what was expected to be a giveaway mixtape to iTunes, attaching a price tag to it. This qualifies it as an album in the eyes of the digital retailer, and it sold so well (on zero promotion) that it debuted in the top spot the following week. It appears that the surprise release hasn’t derailed Drake’s plan to release Views From The 6, another full album, complete with singles, videos, and the like—all of which is missing from the If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late release.
All jokes aside, this kind of search engine is actually a genius idea, and it may just be the first example of such a program to go viral. If a search engine that connects every result back to one person can be created by someone having fun, why can’t a company put one together that links every search to a certain industry or product? There could conceivably be specialized search engines that take some of the leg work out of delving into the depths of the internet, just to come up with items that don’t relate to you. Say you worked in the financial services industry—wouldn’t it be helpful to have the option of using a website that kept that “in mind” while it returned searches to you of all kinds?
It is worth noting (and it’s probably obvious) that Google probably isn’t going to lose much market share to Let Me Drake That For You. Ironically, to learn more about this new service in order to write this piece, I had to use Google to search for “Let Me Drake You For That”.
