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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... | |
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! | |