Lyrics Search

Is there an advanced lyrics search where you can search for a word or phrase in the lyrics, but narrow it down to only search in songs by a certain artist? I could use that for this Britney Spears-Bruce Springsteen idea I have...

Random Predictions

I predict Neil Patrick Harris will be a contestant on Dancing With The Stars. Maybe next year. He will do well. Top 3-5.

In 5-10 years plaid will be in style. Not flannel, just plaid the pattern.

Text Guessing

Don't you think Predictive Text ought to be able to predict that when you start a sentence with "what" "who" etc., and then you press "1," you want the question mark, not the period!

Smells Like Kid Spirit

I sure wish there was a fragrance (body spray, purfume, potpourri) that smelled like the Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I loved these dolls when I was a kid, and I can still remember their plasticky sweet aroma. The 4" dolls each had a different fruity smell (Blueberry Muffin, Lemon Merengue, etc.). Now, 25 years later, I can still go down to my basement back home, pull out a plastic bag that is now home to my old friends, stick my face in and take a deep breath....and instantly that carefree, imaginative, hopeful, and fruity feeling of childhood fills me up.
So if I could get that feeling without having to stick my head in a plastic bag, that'd be great!

Virtu-real Pet

A few weeks ago I got an invite on Facebook for an application where you can adopt a cute 3D cartoon dog. I went ahead and tried it out. Pet it, it responded to my "touch." Gave it water, it lapped it up and soon wanted more. Threw a ball, it fetched. Soon I was bored of these routines and had had enough of the emotional taxation of having to play with this fake creature because my beloved, all-too-real dog is dead. So I ignored "Buddy's" innocent, pleading, artificial eyes and removed the application.
In the Buddy app, they give you a choice of about 5 dogs. I picked one of the big lab-type dogs because I thought the little terrier style dogs would be too similar to my dog. But, what if there was a choice of one exactly like Pepper? Somehow that would appeal to me. Maybe it would be too painful, I don't know. It would still be a computerized animal, it wouldn't have Pepper's personality. But still, if I could see Pepper run again, even just as a screen saver....if I could scratch behind her ears once more, only with the movement of a plastic mouse....
Maybe it wouldn't be healthy, emotionally. I couldn't imagine having an animated virtual Grandma! That doesn't seem right. Maybe it would be more appropriate for pets while they're alive. But then you'd get people who would pamper their pets on the computer while the real animal is being ignored.
Maybe something like this already exists? I looked online, but didn't find anything. But I'm sure the technology is available. You upload a bunch of pictures of your pet and the program analyzes them and creates a 3D image. How available is that kind of technology? At the least, they could have a create-an-avatar type thing. Let you customize a cartoon image...start with a terrier base, shorten fur, elongate nose, lengthen legs, etc.. That's easy right?
Please comment what you think, especially if you know anything about the technological side, I'm pretty clueless!
FYI...
Here's an article about a new virtual pet program coming out. I guess the technology for this one isn't all that new or exciting, but it was the first I really heard about anyone actually doing this....
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/mg19726495.700-virtual-pets-can-learn-just-like-babies.html
Pretty freaking amazing...and scary. When is Skynet supposed to take over and terminate us?

Searching

I think there should be more advanced options for Google or any search engine.

Search for these words: ___ Within: ___words/lines

So you won't get results with one of the search words in the text and another word in a link or something. And you don't have to search for an exact match. Like Search for "roald dahl" and "spine" in the same paragraph. Or if you're looking for a person you could search for "John" and "Smith" within 2 words. Then your results would include "John Smith" "Smith, John" and "John P. Smith"!

I guess they already have an option where you can search in the text/title/URL/links/all of a page. But I tried it and got the same results using text, links or all.

Or even just a way to exclude sponsored ads. I hate when my results are some random page that happens to have an ad for the thing I'm searching for.

I predict this one will be available one day.....
Image Search. And I don't mean search for images that have titles or tags or whatever that match the words you're looking for. I mean, you input a picture, or maybe draw it in, or select image components, and the results are images that look similar to your image. It would be similar to facial recognition software. So you could put a picture of someone, and the results would be other pictures of that person, and pictures of people who resemble them. Or you could take a pic of a table, and the results would include all kinds of tables, maybe even a dog or something. Then maybe you could refine the search by labeling some of the results. The coffee table image "Yes" The dog "No" The kitchen table "No" And then the results would be all short long tables. Also, you could click on category: Architecture, then Columns, then Corinthian, then 6, then search. And the results would be images with 6 Corinthian Columns! Maybe even a 6-legged insect too! Take it a step further by adjusting the positions of the columns to refine your results.
Google is trying to improve its image search, but not in the way my idea would work. You can help them label images and improve the quality of Google's image search results here:
http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/
It's set up like a game--it's actually pretty fun.

Crap Fish

So apparently there are plenty of Carp fish, and they are omnivores. I hear they really eat anything. So why don't we put the Carp with those barges of garbage....do some recycling!
I had just posted this, and a few days later there's a news story about a new kind of pedicure....they let Carp eat the dead skin off your feet! See?!