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Political Questions as viewed by Google.  Line thickness indicates the relative number of questions asked that were alike

It's difficult to predict the long range impact of Google and other search engines like Bing.  For sure they are changing the way we do things.  They are also changing the way we think and plan.

Their advertising model has allowed Google to grow to be one of the most powerful companies in the world, perhaps the most influential.

Why are they so powerful?  In a few words:  They have the data.  Billions of queries are not lost.  They keep track of every questions ever asked them.  Trillions of megabytes go by their 'computer eyes' every day.

It all started looking for things like "Battle of Waterloo".  References would be returned.  Now it is much more.  If you type in Battle of Waterloo, Google auto suggests before you ask for it, the following: (Try it, you'll see)

1. Battle of Waterloo timeline

2. Battle of Waterloo movie

3. Battle of Waterloo game

4. Battle of Waterloo facts

5. Battle of Waterloo summary

6. Battle of Waterloo site

7. Battle of Waterloo bagpipe music

8. Battle of Waterloo bicentennial

This shows a lot because it gives us an immediate handle on what people are looking for in the order of number of people asking. 

Could holiday gifts of the game been on people's mind over the last few weeks?  For sure the answer is yes.  The first page, if you select games, is full of ideas for games that centre around the great battle.  This can be used by game manufacturers to find new trends in what the public wants.

Let's move on to politics in the polarizing way the United States voters see it. A Canadian version of this is left to the reader.

 We ask a question in two ways:  The first way is "Republicans are" and the second is "Democrats are"

The First Question:  Republicans are:

By the responses you can see the questions were asked by Democrats. The entire phrase is what was asked.  Here are the questions asked in order ranking of the number of people asking the same question.

1. Republicans are a disease.

2. Republicans are retarded

3. Republicans are warmongers

4. Republicans are ignorant

5. Republicans are destroying America

6. Republicans are morons

7. Republicans are liberal or conservative

8. Republicans are hypocrites.

9. Republicans are insane

10. Republicans are red

The Second Question:  Democrats are:

By the responses you can see these questions were asked by Republicans.

1. Democrats are communists

2. Democrats are traitors

3. Democrats are facing a drubbing

4. Democrats are liberal or conservative

5. Democrats are socialists

6. Democrats are destroying America

7. Democrats are losing

8. Democrats are at odds on the relevance of Keynes

9. Democrats are smarter than Republicans

10. Democrats are better than Republicans

Out of the 20 question you can see we have some very similar ones like 5 and 7 in group one and 4 and 6 in group 2.

Question set two number 8 is a strange one and we could guess that this could have come from right wing talk radio talking points so that a significant number of listeners wanted more information on this subject because they did not fully understand the implications.  This has to do with the economist Keynes

It's easy to imagine what would happen if political parties the world over could have access to the full data base and the numbers associated with the questions.  One could imagine the impact in Canada of knowing what questions resonate in what riding so that a campaign could be oriented to hit the 'hot buttons'.

The picture above was an earlier look at the questions.  What we've shown here was done today December 29, 2010 at 7 pm

For a full look at this please endure the very interesting peek inside Google given below.  It's 1 hour and 26 minutes long.

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Wednesday, December 29, 2010