Rush did this today, but probably every host does it if you listen long enough.<\/p>\n
“X” is more\/less popular than “Y” because the Google Search results say the count for X is more\/less than Count for Y<\/p>\n
Stu of Glenn Beck is the only on-air person that really seems to understand how Google Search works.<\/p>\n
Play along….\u00a0\u00a0 Today Rush was making the case about Michele Bachmann not being well known – comparing her to\u00a0 Obama Head Start….<\/p>\n
Before you play along, sign out from Google Mail or other ways you might be signed into Google.<\/p>\n
Following the wrong way to search Google, search for:<\/p>\n
Michele Bachmann\u00a0\u00a0 – 295,000,000 results
\nObama Head Start – 8,300,000 results<\/p>\n
Therefore Michele Bachmann is much more important.<\/p>\n
The problem is that by default when you use more than one word, the search is Michele AND Bachmann – but anywhere<\/span> on the page – the words don’t have to be next to each other.\u00a0\u00a0 While things about Michele Bachmann will SORT relevant things first, pages with the words widely separated will still count (like a page about Bachmann pretzels) [The pretzel is speeled with only one n]<\/p>\n You need to put the two words in quotes:<\/p>\n “Michele Bachmann”\u00a0 – 18,000,000<\/p>\n Both words in her name can be speeled wrongly – so if you wanted a slightly more loose search, you can do<\/p>\n “(Michele OR Michelle) (Bachmann OR Bachman OR Backman OR Backmann)”<\/p>\n 62,000,000<\/p>\n the OR being upper case matters…\u00a0 if you type “or” instead of “OR” you were asking for the actual word “or”.<\/p>\n I’m really vague on the point Rush was trying to prove.<\/p>\n “head start” OR “headstart” returns 75,300,000<\/p>\n Therefore Michele Bachmann is less written about than the Head Start program…\u00a0\u00a0 oh, but we didn’t mention “Program”, just something having a head start<\/p>\n “head start” OR “headstart” program returns 31,400,000<\/p>\n Now if you add in that not only does it have to be the Head Start Program, but also mention Obama….<\/p>\n Obama (“head start” OR “headstart”) program<\/p>\n we get 3,000,000 results<\/p>\n Searching Google is one of the strongest skills I have among my tools – it’s how I built FindAnISP and StreamingRadioGuide – finding that obscure web page that was written completely wrong to be seen in Google, or finding clever ways to find things coming indirectly.<\/p>\n Even in the best case, you’re only counting the number of things on the internet that Google indexes, and only in the languages you told Google to use.\u00a0\u00a0 Your geographic location may also affect the results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rush did this today, but probably every host does it if you listen long enough. “X” is more\/less popular than “Y” because the Google Search results say the count for X is more\/less than Count for Y Stu of Glenn … Continue reading