Posts Tagged ‘google’

Ngrams

So this week I watched this TED talk about using Google’s database of digitized books to track changes in language use over time! It’s pretty interesting, and the most exciting part is you can totally play with it yourself! You just have to type in the word or words you want to track and the date range. Here are some I made:

Pirates vs. Aliens. Click for full size

Something happened around 1920 and aliens were suddenly way more popular than pirates! Of course, there’s no way of knowing if the books in the database are referring to illegal aliens, space aliens, swashbuckling pirates, or music pirates.

Patricia vs. Steven!

That little Steven bump in the 1870s seems to be because of a book published around then called Steven Lawrence, Yeoman.

North Carolina vs. Florida vs. Texas

I thought I would try various states I’ve lived in! And then:

Sorry, Scotland. You used to be popular but Texas has apparently surpassed you

Try it out for yourself!! There’s also some cool ones on this tumblr.

Things That Spell Our Doom: Google Analytics

Google Analytics has opened my eyes to a lot of things. 1) That I apparently have a growing following in Barueri, Brazil, 2) that my review of Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus is by far my most popular page to date, and 3) my picture from Deussen park in Humble was used in an article on Viral Eruption about ridiculous exit signs. If they think the sign’s ridiculous, they should see the buffalo.

However, the best part of Google Analytics, by far, is the ability to see what search terms led people to the welcoming embrace of The Plaid Pladd. Naturally the top searches this month were “patricia ladd” and “plaid pladd” but some other great ones include:

human leash (8)
dmventures (5)
“listen to showdown throwdown by miley cyrus” (3)
“oh no bella don’t you go” (3)
“it’s my fault for loving you too much” (1)
“scent-confusing” (1)
anna baron humble texas (1)
can we kill the people that don’t like twilight? (1)
cynthia bova blog (1)
edward undress bella (1)
is cookie crisp healthy (1)
plaid pants “murderer” (1)
sharks natural enemies (1)
timeline of plaid (1)
vampire egg love me twilight meyers (1)
waffle killed (1)

It’s almost like poetry.

This information is going to help me a lot. Clearly this is what people want out of me, so I should include more articles about vampire egg love me twilight meyers, twilight porn, and stalking Anna Baron. Don’t worry, gang, I have heard your silent call. Through google. And the software it gave me to spy on you.

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