Using Google to gauge the national mood

[Guest Revelator]

I've recently gotten into Dave Markowitz's Blog O' Stuff. Markowitz is a Pennsylvania lawyer and gun enthusiast and is the founder of The Shooters Bar, an online source for pro-gun attorneys and of which yours truly is a member. On his blog he's recently put up two interesting posts about using Google searches to sort of gauge the nation's mood. Basically you can take certain words or phrases and see how often we've been searching them on Google. He's run the stats on phrases like "assault weapon," "economic collapse," "ammo," and "food storage." Not surprisingly, all have had lots of hits the last few months.

http://blogostuff.blogspot.com/2009/02/gauging-public-mood-with-google-trends.html

http://blogostuff.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-public-mood-investigation-with.html

[Garufa]

You do understand that everything you seach for on Google is tracked and recorded. No this is not . It's well documented.

Just last year the CDC (Center for Disease Control) began using Google records of those who were sick and searched for "flu". From that they are able to ascertain where patterns are developing or outbreaks may be occuring.

Point being, you can take Google records of Internet activities and somewhat gauge the feeling of the nation, etc.

Edited February 26, 2009 by Garufa

[Guest abailey362]

maybe we should start tinfoilhatsearch.com and make sure all records are not published.

[Guest jackdog]

You do understand that everything you seach for on Google is tracked and recorded. No this is not . It's well documented.

Just last year the CDC (Center for Disease Control) began using Google records of those who were sick and searched for "flu". From that they are able to ascertain where patterns are developing or outbreaks may be occuring.

Point being, you can take Google records of Internet activities and somewhat gauge the feeling of the nation, etc.

I find it very ironic that people are so scared of our own government. Guess the rule of law really is a thing of the past as well as the constitution.