What Does the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ Button Do?
Typically, you type in a phrase, press the Google Search button (or press Return or Enter on your keyboard), and Google returns a results page that shows multiple websites matching your search phrase. The I’m Feeling Lucky button bypasses that search results page and goes directly to the first-ranked page for the search phrase you entered.
Depending on your search query, often the first result is the best one, so clicking the I’m Feeling Lucky button saves you a few extra seconds parsing through the list of search results. Just click the button after you enter your search phrase.
Clicking I’m Feeling Lucky is handy if you’re confident that the first result in the search engine is likely to be exactly the page you want to find, but it’s not so handy if you know you’re going to be looking at a lot of sites.
Using the I’m Feeling Lucky button is also a common way for people to point out Google bombs, which are pages that have artificially reached the top spot in the results via coordinated campaigns to link to them.
What Does ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ Mean?
Many think the button may have been named as a play on the Clint Eastwood line in the movie Dirty Harry. It may very well be, but the button serves as a sort of brag from Google; the company is so confident in its ability to serve up only the most relevant search results that you don’t even need to see what comes up. The phrasing may also reflect the mood of the user, who’s playing a sort of search-engine roulette by clicking the button in hopes that the top result answers their question.
Using ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ Without a Search Term
When you first pull up the Google search page but before you enter your search phrase, holding your cursor over the I’m Feeling Lucky button makes it spin wildly with other moods. Those phrases change randomly. For example, you might see “I’m Feeling Curious” or “I’m Feeling Doodly.”
If you hover over the I’m Feeling Lucky button and click one of the “I’m Feeling…” options without entering a search term, Google takes you to a webpage it thinks you might enjoy. If you click I’m Feeling Hungry, Google may show you a page with local restaurant options. If you click I’m Feeling Puzzled, you see a page of puzzles. Each choice delivers related content, and that content changes frequently.
