A few days ago Jason Kottke ranted that Google is no longer just a mere search engine company. After reading the latest issue of the Economist I would have to agree.
In the article, How anti-European is America?, the author uses Google to gauge American public opinion based on the number of search results received.
"So how furious are the Americans? Certainly, American anti-Europeanism is a marginal phenomenon in comparison with its evil European twin. A Google search generates 401 references to 'anti-Europeanism in America' and 22,300 to 'anti-Americanism in Europe'."
This is the first time that I am aware of Google being used as a Public Opinion Engine. While it makes for an interesting tidbit of useless knowledge, I hope journalist do not start basing fact from such a faulty research method. Though I'm sure the newsnicks in Arkansas are already taking note and adding a Google bookmark.
In the same article the "search engine" is used again, but as this time as the basis for a pretty good joke — much to the dismay of the French,
"The spoof Google search doing the rounds in Washington, DC, runs: 'Your search—French military victories—did not match any documents. No pages were found. Did you mean French military defeats?'"
That's the kind of Google results we can all appreciate.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
The article is very flawed indeed - what kind of research is this anyway? I mean, 22,300 American writing about anti-Americanism in Europe is hardly indicative of any anti-Americanism in Europe, now is it?
Flawed is right; how many Americans can even spell "anti-Europeanism"? "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" might garner more results (after filtering out all the Simpsons references of course).
The French might point those searching for military victories to a certain Mr. Bonaparte, one of the long line of little men with the delusion of building an Empire, who started off quite well, but ended quite badly.
Well said Tom, the only difference between then and now is that Nap occasionally went out in the field during an armed conflict rather than just spending it drinking his way through college.
The French joke kicking around the Internet goes like this: Bush reaches the gates of Heaven. God says he must prove his identity, as even Einstein and Picasso did before him. Bush asks, "Who are Einstein and Picasso?" Satisfied, God lets him in.
Richard Posner also used Google in part to rank his top 100 public intellectuals.... (NYT article on that here). It's a half-decent starting point, I think -- but I'd be really curious to see just what sort of skew the web puts on things (even assuming Google has a perfectly accurate representation of what's on the web to begin with).
LOL - gotta oove that Bush joke. BTW, the Google "trick" no longer works. :-(
If you look up 'French Military Victories' you will now see Airbag. Funny how that works.
wtg Greg... we had the French right where we wanted them then you go and pull a stunt like this. ;^)
What's interesting to me is that even though this thread started as a question about national opinion and how a search engine could (or shouldn't) determine what that voice was, it inevitably turned to Bush bashing. Nice job Tom, mission accomplished. 99.86% of blog threads now have some anti-Bush comments.
If only it weren't so easy, eh?
Or juvenile?
NOW the french want to use diplomacy? Since when have they ever done this before??? Bosnia? Rowanda? Columbia? North Korea? Palistine? Gulf War I? After 12 years, it is they who make a mockery of the UN.
All jokes aside, when the @%$#! hits the fan, wether you support the effort or not. Wether or not you THINK this IS the correct response to terrorism or people who support terroreists. YOU as an AMERICAN must SUPPORT our troops!!!!! REMEMBER, the soldier is not responsable for the direction he MUST take, but he will bare the burden of the whirlwind he finds himself in!!
Chris & Greg - I just tried the google search for the first time, & it worked for me. Not sure why it didn't for you.