Google Zeitgeist
July 6th 2008 10:15
The Internet is full of toys of all sorts. One I discovered the other day was the Google Zeitgeist. This mightn’t be what everyone else calls a toy, but it appeals to me, with my leanings towards stats and such.
The site is broken up into sections and the one I happened to have a link to was the one that looked at the top searches for Who is…? What is…? and How To….?
The first list has these ten as the top searches (note the distinct lack of capital letters)
God and Satan are in their right places, respectively, I’m intrigued to see! In fact having
who is buckethead before satan is quite an achievement. I don’t know who buckethead is either, so I had to have a look. Apparently he’s an American guitarist and composer whose real name is Brian Carroll. He’s known for wearing a white plastic mask and a KFC bucket on his head while performing. Each to his own.
It’s odd to see questions like ‘who is it’ and ‘who is calling’ and ‘who is this’ as part of searches. What results would you get from such searches (apart from almost uncountable ones)?
The second list goes from What is love at number one to What is gout at number ten. Are there really that many people suffering from gout? Crikey! The third list begins with ‘how to kiss’ and winds up with ‘how to skateboard’. They could be from the same guys but it’s unlikely. In between we have how to dance, how to draw, knit, hack (whoops), crochet, meditate and flirt. How to levitate comes up ninth, before how to skateboard. I’m sure there’s something a philosopher could make of that.
The site is broken up into sections and the one I happened to have a link to was the one that looked at the top searches for Who is…? What is…? and How To….?
The first list has these ten as the top searches (note the distinct lack of capital letters)
1. who is god
2. who is who
3. who is lookup
4. who is jesus
5. who is it
6. who is buckethead
7. who is calling
8. who is keppler
9. who is this
10. who is satan
2. who is who
3. who is lookup
4. who is jesus
5. who is it
6. who is buckethead
7. who is calling
8. who is keppler
9. who is this
10. who is satan
God and Satan are in their right places, respectively, I’m intrigued to see! In fact having
Brian Carroll with his bucket
It’s odd to see questions like ‘who is it’ and ‘who is calling’ and ‘who is this’ as part of searches. What results would you get from such searches (apart from almost uncountable ones)?
The second list goes from What is love at number one to What is gout at number ten. Are there really that many people suffering from gout? Crikey! The third list begins with ‘how to kiss’ and winds up with ‘how to skateboard’. They could be from the same guys but it’s unlikely. In between we have how to dance, how to draw, knit, hack (whoops), crochet, meditate and flirt. How to levitate comes up ninth, before how to skateboard. I’m sure there’s something a philosopher could make of that.
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