Can’t work out from someone’s name whether a new contact is male or female? Google’s “user happiness researcher” (I’m not kidding) suggests a clever idea: perform an image search for the name and see what kind of photos you get.
In a post on Google’s Inside Search blog, Daniel Russell outlines the technique:
In today’s world, you sometimes only “meet” people virtually. If someone has a name that’s not common in your culture, you may not know if they’re male or female. Here’s a trick: just look for the name in Google Images, like Nikhil, and you should get a pretty good idea.
Obviously, this technique isn’t infallible, but it’s possibly more reliable than trying to work out the usage of the name through seeing what Google Translate throws up. And if you get a mix of male and female faces, you can at least be excused for not being able to make a definite decision.
Tips from Google’s User Happiness Researcher [Inside Search]
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