May 03, 2004
Fun with White House Search Results, Part II
I decided to revisit a
blog entry I'd made back in March 2003, to see
how things had changed or stayed the same with regard to search results
at the
White House website.
First, a summary of some notable changes:
- "Iraq" is up 532.5%, not surprisingly
- "peace", on the other hand, is down 84%
- Strangely, so is "war"! (-84%)
- "Idiot" was up 100%.
- "Religion" dropped by 94%, "faith" dropped by 88%, but "God" is up by 47%.
- "Cats" and "dogs" were both down over 83%. Still nothing for "goldfish"
- "Domestic" dropped by 83%, but "foriegn" rose by 56%
- It wasn't a good year for "truth": down 83%
- However, it was a great year for "lie", up 67%
- And it was an awesome year for "fear", up 121%
- The White House website mentions "Democrat" a lot less now (-86%), but "Republican" mentions grew a respectable 33%
- Hmm: "bribes" were up a staggering 600% since March 2003
- And yet, "money" dropped 91%, and "special interests" dropped 97%.
- Mentions of "Israel" were down 86%, but mentions of "Texas" were up 83%.
- It wasn't a good year for "sex", which dropped 93%, while "drugs" rose 84%.
- Unfortunately, "rock and roll" dropped 100%.
- I didn't collect data on these terms in 2003, but I find it interesting that as of today the White House website mentions the term "oil" only 58 times, but mentions "hydrogen" 86 times.
- Also, in 2004 there are more mentions of "Arnold Schwartzenegger" than there are of "Condoleezza Rice" at the White House website.
- If you're looking for information on, or simply mention of, the term "United Nations", don't bother searching at the White House website. You'll find zero (0) results.
- I post this on a record-breaking hot-as-hell day here in La Jolla, but I know better than going to the White House website for information on "global warming" because the number of search results I'll get for that phrase is zero.
And now, the raw data comparing 2003 to 2004, followed by a list of new findings for 2004:
2003 2004
----- -----
iraq..................... 480 2556
bin Laden................ 233 355
enron.................... 56 66
halliburton.............. 12 28
pollution................ 205 310
crime.................... 515 888
homeland security........ 1090 6893
axis of evil............. 38 47
patriotism............... 109 123
flag..................... 309 417
peace.................... 1571 258
freedom.................. 1682 3252
economy.................. 1683 3287
war...................... 2028 327
brilliant................ 50 77
intelligent.............. 39 80
stupid................... 5 0
dumb..................... 1 0
idiot.................... 0 5
evil..................... 524 633
worship.................. 251 313
prayer................... 358 497
faith.................... 960 115
religion................. 321 18
god...................... 800 1173
goldfish................. 0 0
cats..................... 73 12
dogs..................... 156 11
terrorist................ 1435 2765
unemployment............. 357 610
domestic................. 746 127
foreign.................. 1691 2645
truth.................... 347 121
lie...................... 594 991
global terror............ 62 8
global warming........... 0 0
environment.............. 1045 1601
taxes.................... 1510 2356
business................. 1953 205
republican............... 829 1109
democrat................. 641 88
liberal.................. 42 86
conservative............. 135 20
dove..................... 5 5
hawk..................... 51 8
woman's right to choose.. 0 0
bribes................... 3 18
campaign finance reform.. 9 44
kickbacks................ 10 13
quid pro quo............. 13 18
special interests........ 89 3
gifts.................... 395 54
incentives............... 591 1273
votes.................... 856 1388
money.................... 1341 127
|
2003 2004
----- -----
england.................. 133 258
egypt.................... 139 18
italy.................... 165 29
saudi arabia............. 190 39
iran..................... 212 482
germany.................. 239 434
france................... 287 96
japan.................... 302 51
korea.................... 322 681
canada................... 352 498
india.................... 381 462
israel................... 392 53
china.................... 507 756
russia................... 566 102
mexico................... 636 1051
texas.................... 1130 2063
fear..................... 429 949
worry.................... 492 869
pretzel.................. 9 12
alcohol.................. 163 314
baseball................. 152 284
football................. 87 143
soccer................... 37 7
golf..................... 32 48
basketball............... 32 3
hockey................... 17 28
sex...................... 44 3
drugs.................... 1060 1954
rock and roll............ 2 0
springsteen.............. 0 0
stereolab................ 0 0
beatles.................. 1 1
madonna.................. 2 2
michael jackson.......... 3 2
britney spears........... 23 22
yo la tengo.............. 152 317
rolling stones........... 380 828
who...................... 3962 7444
guided by voices......... 9798 13386
amazon................... 2 3
ebay..................... 5 0
yahoo.................... 12 1
microsoft................ 23 1
apple.................... 46 134
blog..................... 0 0
earthlink................ 1 1
aol...................... 21 113
web...................... 417 38
internet................. 382 882
the well................. 13185 17668
|
New 2004 searches (didn't do them in 2003):
kill..................... 84
killed................... 84
wounded.................. 198
innocent................. 52
guilty................... 11
deception................ 194
secret................... 535
secrecy.................. 81
citizen.................. 3401
consumer................. 1196
bible.................... 3
torah.................... 0
koran.................... 0
jesus.................... 45
christ................... 10
christian................ 188
muslim................... 385
jew...................... 0
jewish................... 149
minister................. 1566
rabbi.................... 26
imam..................... 38
church................... 495
state.................... 915
men...................... 2375
women.................... 159
abortion................. 165
marriage................. 572
gay marriage............. 0
divorce.................. 3
diebold.................. 0
rigged................... 0
middle east.............. 1234
midwest................... 86
9-11...................... 20
9/11...................... 19
september 11th............ 1388
tobbaco................... 6
smoking................... 180
education................. 3167
social security........... 1012
welfare................... 58
surveillance.............. 252
intelligence.............. 1628
monitoring................ 1158
prosperity................ 751
diplomatic................ 116
military.................. 235
united nations............ 0
mission accomplished...... 0
|
honor..................... 2489
courage................... 719
honesty................... 9
integrity................. 33
ethical................... 4
ethics.................... 196
guns...................... 186
violence.................. 985
rape rooms.............. 40
torture................. 30
democracy............... 97
alcohol................... 314
party..................... 2075
awol...................... 4
arnold schwarzenegger..... 28
condoleezza rice.......... 25
richard clarke............ 5
valerie plame............. 5
joe wilson................ 13
paul o'neill.............. 57
secretary of state........ 1091
vice president............ 618
secretary of defense...... 591
preserve.................. 58
protect................... 649
defend.................... 1335
constitution.............. 1320
bill of rights............ 187
NRA....................... 15
ACLU...................... 0
gas...................... 53
oil...................... 58
hydrogen................. 86
nuclear.................. 1177
cbs..................... 83
fox news................ 25
cnn..................... 10
abc..................... 9
nbc..................... 3
msnbc................... 1
national guard.......... 310
reservist............... 92
contractor.............. 7
mercenary............... 1
|
Posted by brian at May 3, 2004 11:48 AM
quite funny... :]
cant wait till your test in 2005.
what does the white house care about yo la tengo?
Maybe I'm not reproducing your method correctly, but I get quite different numbers for some topics. Some variation is likely as the indexer hits new pages and removes old pages, but others are an order of magnitude different. It also looks there isn't consistency in the use of quotation marks to indicate a complete term. See the differences between bill of rights (search was done with quotes above) and yo la tengo (search was done without quotes above).
peace .............. 2805
war ................ 3323
midwest ............ 1
"bill of rights" ... 170
bill of rights ..... 22053
"yo la tengo" ...... 0
yo la tengo ........ 190
Anyway, it's amusing none the less.
Patrick, you're right --- in fact I just checked at the WhiteHouse.gov site, and already several of the search results return different counts than what I listed.
Hmm.
Also, some of the humorous links, like "yo la tengo", "guided by voices", "the well", stuff like that, were obviously searches without quotes. But all the serious stuff was done with quotes unless it was a single word.
I'm very intrigued to discover that the search result counts vary so soon after the article was written. Not that I think the White House people have done anything --- I suspect it's a technology issue. Would love to find out the cause.
