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Monitoring the Police State of America "Meme"
 
Google is an interesting way to test the popularity or, at least, prevalence of any given memes. I thought it might be interesting to see what happens to that prevalence in regard to the issue of the Police State of America. I first bothered in January 2005 and repeated the exercise in June with a couple of new strings. As you can see from the comments I think they're unsatisfactory and found a better one in October. Overall though, I think we're learning more about Google than about public perceptions of the Police State. Still, I'll plod on with it for a few more months at least and see if it does indeed produce anything interesting. I'm trying to remember to do it every month or so. You can check the current status of the search strings just by clicking on the "snipped" links.

 

Google Search Terms Date Pages Comments
Click on the Links below to get the current status of the meme      
       
"Police State" America Freedom Jan 2005 205000
  June 2005 259000  
  Sep 11 2005 828000 Wow!
  Oct 03 2005 939000 Getting serious
  Nov 05 2005 1,250,000 Looks like the message is getting across. I wonder when we'll hit "Critical Mass" (That's got to be a good name for a web site!)
  Nov 25 2005 1,270,000  
  Mar 01 2006 1,580,000  
  Apr 15 2006 1,670,000  
  July 13 2006 1,380,000 like I say below, if we are to believe this evidence, the meme is fading!
  Oct 04 2006 1,840,000 Not any more!
  Nov 01 2006 1,330,000 uh oh. Here we go again...
  Dec 13 2006 843,000 This needs explanation!
  Feb 28 2007 1,080,000 I dunno
  July 7 2007 1,120,000  
  Oct 06 2007 1,190,000  
       
"is america a police state?" June 2005 480  
  Sep 11 2005 678  
  Oct 03 2005 503  
  Nov 05 2005 1430  
  Nov 25 2005 453  
  Mar 01 2006 491  
  Apr 15 2006 821  
  July 13 2006 774  
  Oct 04 2006 677  
  Nov 01 2006 665  
  Dec 13 2006 618  
  Feb 28 2007 10,700 no, I don't believe it either! Looks like something exploded somewhere (I've missed it so far)
  July 7 2007 593 back to invisible
  Oc 06 2007 849  
       
"america is a police state" June 2005 822  
  Sep 11 2005 776 interesting - we've lost some - despite the massive increase in the main search page above
  Oct 03 2005 862 reversed - but note losses in prev search. With such low numbers, might be statistical artefact.
  Nov 05 2005 3680 Apparent Blip
  Nov 25 2005 738 I think this wild variation must reflect changes in Google's algorithms
  Mar 01 2006 790 Stabilised?
  Apr 15 2006 739  
  July 13 2006 368 Somewhat unlikely. If we were to believe this, the idea is fading so things must surely be getting better. How come the real world doesn't correlate?
  Oct 04 2006 648 godnose!
  Nov 01 2006 1,610  
  Dec 13 2006 1710  
  Feb 28 2007 26,800 Well, well well. That clearly confirms the leap in the one above...
  July 7 2007 41,900 Taking root...
  Oct 06 2007 44,700 Established...
       

"the American Police State"

Oct 03 2005 12,900  
  Nov 05 2005 13,600  
  Nov 25 2005 12,800  
  Mar 01 2006 13,000  
  Apr 15 2006 29,200 sudden leap - beginning to look obvious that a significant amount of this variation is down to Google continually tweaking its algorithms
  July 13 2006 19,000 sudden drop - more tweaking behind the scenes?
  Oct 04 2006 19,500 Stable ish
  Nov 01 2006 24,200  
  Dec 13 2006 25000  
  Feb 28 2007 16,800 that surprised me - given the above...
  July 7 2007 12,400 steady drop
  Oct 06 2007 12,500 stabilised...
       
"Police State Of America" Nov 05 2005 1400 Suddenly occurred to me that I ought to track my own Title page as a meme!
  Nov 25 2005 487 Significant drop but my page appears #1
  Mar 01 2006 455  
  April 15 2006 568  
  July 13 2006 597  
  Oct 04 2006 563 Stable ish
  Nov 01 2006 538  
  Dec 13 2006 929 Interesting!
  Feb 28 2007 736 Bloody lewrockwell has beaten me into 2nd position!
  July 7 2007 595 Rockwell still ahead
  Oct 06 2007 843 Down to 3rd dammit!