Monday, December 29, 2008
You are what you Google
Slate did this cool twist on the whole "2008 in review" story. Instead of just writing about what happened, they did a story about what people Googled this year.You heard me.
Using some fancy programs (Google-based, of course) and their own generous knowledge of pop culture events, they looked at any search term that got more hits or searches than the major political candidates (Obama, et. al). They even took the time to explain how they did it:
Our methodology was pretty simple: We pitted the number of Google searches for a wide variety of cultural products and figures against the number of searches for the top candidates, looking for any story that was more Googled than politics on a given day. (We used Google Insights to compare the terms.) In effect, this means we were looking for cultural figures more searched-for than Obama. (His name was a more popular search term than the other candidates' for most of the year; Sarah Palin held the top spot for a month or so after she was selected as the Republican running mate.) Below is a sample chart that compares various candidates with two of the biggest nonpolitical stories of the year. Google data is displayed on a 100-point scale set by the highest data point on the chart.So, America: What did we Google?
Some of everything. From Ashley Dupré (Eliot Spitzer's escort) to Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon (who were married in April) to Marc Chagall (Russian-born modernist artist) to Bernie Mac (died in August) and a whole lot of stuff in between.
Check out the article here.
Labels: computer assisted reporting, new year's resolutions
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