Can someone explain the logic behind this search result?
Search term: 
where in the world is carmen sandiego
Screenshot of search result:
http://googlefoundcarmensandiego.ytmnd.com/

I know that Google has a few other jokes coded into its software;
for example, "answer to life the universe and everything" returns a
Google Calculator result of 42. Some other questions entered as search
terms return "answers" with links to other web pages (try "Who is
buried in Grant's Tomb" or "What is the airspeed velocity of an
unladen swallow" without the quotes) but this one links back to
www.google.com as the source. Is this just another joke, or is it
something Google's search engine really picked up from somewhere?

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Clarification of Question by cronodas-ga on 30 Nov 2005 10:43 PST

1) The Carmen Sandiego result is NOT the result of using the "I'm
Feeling Lucky" button.
2) I gave the link to the YTMND page because, well, it is a screenshot
of the search results. You can do the search yourself and get the same
answer.
3) The most likely explanations are either 
    a) a Google bomb of some kind
    b) a joke by Google itself.
I'm guessing it's a joke, but I wish there was a way to know for sure.

try the search text: french military victories
and then click the [i'm feeling lucky] button

Yes. This is a joke by Google employess. Naturally coders lose their
mind after sitting and programming search algorithyms day after day,
and so end up eventually throwing all sorts of jokes into their
program. It would be simple to code that into google's software, all
they would have to do is spoof the data in their server that collects
search inquiries. The link brings you back to google, implying that is
really is just a joke. There are a lot of really interesting jokes
done by Google in the past, check the following google websites to see
them for yourself.

://www.google.com/googlegulp/index.html - specifically, the answer
to number three on the frequently asked questions link is quite
entertaining

Mentalplex was a 2000 april fool's day joke,
://www.google.com/mentalplex/

Pigeonrank was another funny april fool's day joke.
://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html

://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html

Google also for the lunar landing, and to show off their map software
posted the moon image that let you zoom in on the places astronauts
have landed on the moon. see http://moon.google.com
Zoom in all the way on the moon.

using the search strings, "miserable failure", "worst president ever"
and doing an I'm feeling lucky gives you the biography of the US
President George W. Bush at the white house website for some reason as
well.


In the languages list there available, "Bork! Bork! Bork!", "Bork!
Bork! Bork!" being the fake Swedish of the Muppets Show's Swedish
Chef...Also on languages, there is Klingon, and Elmer Fudd.
://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

George W. Bush appearing as the top rank in a search for "miserable
failure" is a result of what is known as a "Google Bomb". Many people
linked to the White House page using the text "miserable failure", so
the Google search algorithm, using the assumption that link text is
relevant to the linked page, returns that page. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb for more information.

So, Google can come up with some genuinely weird results without it
having to have been a joke that originated within Google itself, which
is why I asked the question.

(The "french millitary victories" result was simply a site made up to
look like Google. See http://www.google-watch.org/newsday.html for
more information.)

The Whois directory does NOT show Google to be the registered owner of
ytmnd.com, but rather an individual in New York City.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

I still stand by that is a joke... and realize that it isn't Google
that is referring to Bush as the worst president ever, just an amusing
thing to find if you are running search strings. Umm... Yeah. Totally
Google just messing around. They are really a bunch of dinks anyway.

This is not a joke by Google.  It's as explained by the others...the
'lucky' button goes to the top website in a standard search.  There
are ways to get your website to be the #1 returned website for
different searches.  Web developers are very familiar with this
process.  For instance, type in "Roller Coaster Las Vegas" and the
lucky button takes you to the website for "The Stratosphere Hotel" in
Las Vegas.  Go a regular google search on the same & you'll see that
it's the first site returned in the list.  That is because the hotel
Stratosphere has used different techniques to get themselves to the
top of the list based on certain search strings.  It doesn't mean they
are the best or the only roller coaster in Las Vegas, they just have
done a great job getting themselves on the top of the list.  It's
great marketing.

The French Victories as well as all the past jokes about George W. are
no different.  Someone makes a website that looks like Google, then
markets their site for different search strings so that they are #1 in
the search lists.  Once that happens, their 'joke' has been completed
& using the 'lucky' button will take you to their Google look-a-like
page automatically.  Google staff has ZERO to do with it.  The link
given already explains it perfectly & correctly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb

The search result seems to have been removed. However, I saw this a
couple months ago so I attest to its authenticity. It's one of those
easter eggs such as 42.