I can't decide which of these tote 'em ups is cooler. The New York Times has a graphic analysis of the top 200 search terms used on both of the candidates' websites — and with abortion topping Barack Obama's and health care heading McCain's it makes me think perhaps web-searchers are using the sites to get info on the opponent? The lists seem a weirdly counter to what one might expect from ardent supporters, but maybe I'm nuts?
Speaking of Congress (I kid, I kid) this is remarkably addictive and enlightening too — it's called CapitolWords, and it uses the Congressional record to figure out the most-used word on any given day. It's a little slice of the American consciousness that's eerie. From June 16 to June 20 it reads, "tax, health, oil, housing, oil." Well, it looks like they're talking about the right things at least? Try it out, but I'm warning you it's tough to stop.
To see the full New York Times graph of the percentage of search terms used on each of the candidate's sites read more.
DKNY
Acne Jeans
Matthew Williamson
let's just hope that they are using the word "oil" in sentences like, "our dependence on oil threatens our international and national security" or "oil companies are reaping the benefits at the cost of impoverished people around the world" instead of sentences like, "let's drill for more oil in alaska" and "the melting of perma-frost will not affect oil pipelines."
this is a cool little gadget. i will refer to it often. i wish they made it easy to see "when" the words were used though and by whom...
1That's interesting! And hey, even if the searches are primarily being done by the opposing sides, at least it means people are making an effort to do some research on their own (even if just looking for more things to attack).
2good point Jude!
3I agree Jude. Getting information from the candidate's website is much better than getting a "translation" from media pundits (of all political beliefs).
4Looking at the graph thingy, it's also pretty encouraging that searches on the major issues outnumber searches on rumors and religion
5the more research the better! totally agree.
6Totally, Jillness!
7I'm surprised the words aren't "I" or "me" or "my"
of course, I've looked up on the methodology and those are considered "stop word" and therefore aren't counted.
8does someone really type in "rumor McCain" on google?
9I'd assume they're lumping a bunch of different search terms known to relate to candidate rumors together, syako?
Although I sometimes type entire complete-sentence questions into Google just for the hell of it.
10I type all kinds of things in google for the heck of it too jude!
11I saw WAll-E in the theaters before reading reviews about it. That way I could craft my own opinion first.
What's my point? Jillness I think you're right that people are often misled by soaking up "translated" opinions/understandings from pundits. That being said, some resources do a good job picking apart the diction used by politicians - and diction is everything. But you're right...only reading pundits can lead to scary interpretations of what's going on...
12Remember Ask Jeeves, syako? That stupid butler never answered my questions right
13man I used to boycott google for the longest time, simply because it was so "in"
I'm such a rebel... without a cause...
14I used to be all about AltaVista
Those were the days!
15oooh their babel fish is the best.thing.ever. have you ever used it?
I used it for sooooooooo many french assignments
16That's the translation thingy, right? So cool!
17yeah it is! they have tons of languages on there too.
18NolanOB, the really scary thing is how much of the mainstream media is editorial style pundit action. The basic facts can be hard to find!
Anymore I listen to the pundits to hear some of the main topics, and then try to google other sources on the same thing. If it is about a specific candidate, I try to find the quote they were refering to (to see the context) or the full text of the speech they made, or the legislation that they had an opinion on. It is time consuming, though! The slice and dice of quotes can be so misleading!
19Nolan, the hat you are wearing in your pic reminds me of the hat I wore last weekend when camping in the back country. Ahh...to not hear about politics for half a week was refreshing!
20Sy, I thought it was "Rebel without a Clue", but that may have just been me...
21Um, did Mr. UnDave35 just go platinum?!
22Whoa, that he did Citizen - congrats UD!
23Congrats from me as well, UnDave
24Thanks for noticing, as I just looked and saw it this morning
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