A bot searches one phrase 100,000 times. Does it become a suggestion?

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A bot searches the same made-up phrase. 100,000 times. Is it now everyone's top suggestion?

Every search is logged. A daily job counts each query, with time decay. Say a 7-day half-life. Last week counts more than last year. A stream job counts the last hour, for trending terms. The builder merges both and publishes a snapshot of suggestions.

So does the bot win? Not if you count the right thing. Count distinct users, not searches. 100,000 searches from one bot? That's one.

Rule one. One person repeating a query counts once. Rule two. Fewer than a minimum number of users? Dropped. Rare queries can be private. Rule three. The blocklist removes offensive or dangerous terms.

Now a real trend. 9 AM, a celebrity's name takes off. Its last-hour count is far above its usual rate. So it gets a boost. Every hour, a small trending snapshot ships to the servers. Within the hour, it shows up when you type c e l.

The bot is one user. A trend is many. Popular means many people. Not many searches.

Full breakdown in the lecture.