Are You a Cunning Googlefighter?

Dear George,

While I was staying home with Katja during her recuperation from knee surgery, I had lots of free time to surf the Web.  One of the interesting places I ran across is called Googlefight (www.googlefight.com).  It’s not actually a Google website, but rather is a game that makes use of the famous search engine.  Basically, Googlefight allows you to compare the number of Google results from any two different keyword searches.  When you type in two entries, Googlefight.com uses Google to search the Internet and returns a frequency count for each.  Since Google indexes about 30 billion words, you are scanning an enormous body of data.  For example, if you type in "Steve Jobs" and "Mark Zuckerberg", you get 10,800,000 Google hits for Jobs and 4,960,000 for Zuckerberg.  Or, "hot dog" gets 3,380,000 hits, but "hamburger" gets 9,320,000.

Using this procedure, Googlefight shows the comparative popularity of various topics on the Internet.  Given that, it becomes an interesting challenge to try to predict in advance which one of a given pair of topics will yield the most Google search results.  It's not too surprising that Barack Obama gets more hits (22.5Million) than Ron Paul (4.0M).  But what about "vampire" vs. "zombie"?  (In fact, vampire edges out zombie, 32.7M vs. 30.4M).

Below is a list of word pairs that I entered into Googlefight.  See if you can guess beforehand which member of each pair gets the most hits on Google.  (The answers are given at the end.)  Because you're guessing between two choices on each item, you could expect to be correct 50% of the time by random chance (i.e., 16 correct answers out of 32 items).  I’d say if you are correct 75% or more of the time (i.e., 24 or more items), you deserve a Googlefighter Black Belt.  Actually, even though I made up the quiz myself, I only got 44% when I tried it [14 out of 32] correct.  If you do the quiz, let me know how you do.  (At minimum, you probably will beat me.)

Love,

Dave

QUIZ INSTRUCTIONS: Below are pairs of keywords (presented in alphabetical order). Pick the word or phrase in each pair that you think will get the most search results on Google, and write down your response (i.e., a. or b. for each pair).  For example, on the first tiem if you think “Greed” will generate more search results from Google than “Lust”, write down (a).  Be sure to complete all 32 items. The correct answers will be given at the end. 

  

1.  (a) Greed vs. (b) Lust

2.  (a) Pro-Choice vs. (b) Pro-Life

3.  (a) “Jane Eyre” vs. (b) “Jayne Mansfield”

4.  (a) Candy vs. (b) Vegetables

5.  (a) Islam vs. (b) Judaism

6.  (a) California vs. (b) New York

7.  (a) Paula Abdul vs. (b) Simon Cowell

8.  (a) Homophobia vs. (b) Sexism

9.  (a) Recession vs. (b) Recovery

10.  (a) Evil vs. (b) Good

11.  (a) Cincinnati vs. (b) Cleveland

12.  (a) “Jerry Sandusky” vs. (b) “Jerry Springer”

13.  (a) “American Idol” vs. (b) “The Voice”

14.   (a) Gingrich vs. (b) Santorum

15.  (a) Gay vs. (b) Straight

16.   (a) 1% vs. (b) 99%

17.   (a) Pain vs. (b) Pleasure

18.  (a) Beer vs. (b) Pot

19.  (a) Heaven vs. (b) Hell 

20.  (a) “Rush Limbaugh” vs. (b) “Stephen Colbert”

21.   (a) Asians vs. (b) Hispanics

22.  (a) “Lady Gaga” vs. (b) “Michelle Obama”

23.  (a) Death vs. (b) Life

24.  (a) “Conan O’Brien” vs. (b) “Jay Leno” 

25.  (a) Marinette vs. (b) Menominee 

26.  (a) Democrats vs. (b) Republicans

27.  (a) Hate vs. (b) Love

28.  (a) Love vs. (b) Sex

29.   (a) Jesus vs. (b) Santa

30.  (a) “Occupy Wall Street”_vs. (b) “Tea Party”

31.  (a) Health vs. (b) Illness

32.   (a) “Julia Roberts” vs. (b) “my wife” 

ANSWER KEY (in millions):

1.  (a) Greed (5.4M) vs. (b) Lust (15.9M)

2.  (a) Pro-Choice (17.4M) vs. (b) Pro-Life (51.7M)

3.  (a) “Jane Eyre” (19.0M) vs. (b) “Jayne Mansfield” (0.2M)

4.  (a) Candy (41.4M) vs. (b) Vegetables (17.3M)

5.  (a) Islam (41.8M) vs. (b) Judaism (6.0M)

6.  (a) California 150.0M) vs. (b) New York (247.0M)

7.  (a) Paula Abdul (1.0M) vs. (b) Simon Cowell (2.3M)

8.  (a) Homophobia (1.2M) vs. (b) Sexism (1.5M)

9.  (a) Recession (8.7M) vs. (b) Recovery (54.6M)

10.  (a) Evil (58.8M) vs. (b) Good (528.0M)

11.  (a) Cincinnati (15.8M) vs. (b) Cleveland (29.6M)

12.  (a) “Jerry Sandusky” (0.8M) vs. (b) “Jerry Springer” (0.5M)

13.  (a) “American Idol” (12.7M) vs. (b) “The Voice” (17.4M)

14.   (a) Gingrich (2.9M) vs. (b) Santorum (2.6M)

15.  (a) Gay (87.7M) vs. (b) Straight (73.0M)

16.   (a) 1% (24.5M) vs. (b) 99% (14.9M)

17.   (a) Pain (73.5M) vs. (b) Pleasure (32.4M)

18.  (a) Beer (43.8M) vs. (b) Pot (41.5M)

19.  (a) Heaven (39.7M) vs. (b) Hell (59.5M)

20.  (a) “Rush Limbaugh” (1.5M) vs. (b) “Stephen Colbert” (1.2M)

21.  (a) Asians (4.0M) vs. (b) Hispanics (1.4M)

22.  (a) “Lady Gaga” (29.2M) vs. (b) “Michelle Obama” (4.6M)

23.  (a) Death (124.0M) vs. (b) Life (550.0M)

24.  (a) “Conan O’Brien” (8.5) vs. (b) “Jay Leno” (1.7M)

25.  (a) Marinette (0.33M) vs. (b) Menominee (0.27M)

26.  (a) Democrats (7.4M) vs. (b) Republicans (7.3M)

27. (a) Hate (64.3M) vs. (b) Love (530.0M)

28.  (a) Love (530.0M) vs. (b) Sex (213.0M)

29.   (a) Jesus (61.1M) vs. (b) Santa (128.0M)

30.  (a) “Occupy Wall Street” (2.4M)_vs. (b) “Tea Party” (5.4M)

31.  (a) Health (362.0M) vs. (b) Illness (17.2M)

32.   (a) “Julia Roberts” (2.3M) vs. (b) “my wife” (13.8M)

G-mail Comments

-Donna D (7-3):  this looks like fun, but the list is looonnngg.  i'll do it when i have more time.  donna

-Gayle C-L (7-3):  DAVID...  You are amazing.  To have the time and patience to design this game :;))).  AWESOME !!!!   

-David W (7-2):  got 44% and that's after 30 years forecasting peoples taste in popular culture.  Think i'll hang myself! oh well i at least tied a social psychologist.   david