Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Sovereignity of Google

Good morning Blogosphere. Today's topic? The "sovereignity" of Google, up for debate. I've been a enjoying a Facebook Debate on my wall over this post:
Aimée M Nadow: What an english teacher thinks is interesting: 'grey' (2M hits on google) VS. 'gray' (1.7M hits). GREY wins. Dan, Sean, and Christy like this. 
    • Eric Did Grey win because of the Grey's Anatomy or Earl Grey tea?  
    •  
      Christy but at the same time... i have always wondered which spelling people use more... i just never thought to google it!
    •  
      Sarah1 Hum, Eric, you are on to something..Were the numbers really reflective of people looking up how to spell the word? Ew..I am thinking about variations and reasons for standard deviation and probability...And I don't even teach MATH!
    •  
      Sarah2 Yes!!! I've always prefered grey!
So there we go, this raises some questions to ponder! Is it now standard to "trust" Google, because of its speed, even when clearly it is not a primary source? What does that say about our society and our willingness to trade accuracy for speed? What DO the numbers reflect? INTERESTING...

UPDATED: 1/12: 8:54 P.M:


  • Jay What about the colorful side of gray/grey? I never saw battleship grey, and Lady Jane Grey would never do in English Lit, and as I type this, my spell check says grey is misspelled. Clearly it is not a black or white issue, but in a very grey/gray area.

  • Jason  well not to sound like the tech guy, but........why dont you do a boolean search and search for [grey NOT"grey's anatomy" NOT "Earl Grey Tea"] and see if that changes the search. This was a lesson I used to teach in boolean searches. The numbers can change, but not sure if the subject of Grey/Gray will change all that much.