Google Labs recently released a new tool, the Google Books Ngram Viewer. It allows you to chart the frequency of the use of any words you choose for any time period from 1800 through 2008. CBS Sunday Morning featured a story about the new search tool yesterday.
Google has digitized more than fifteen million books as part of an ongoing project, and the Ngram Viewer uses more than five million books in various languages. Within that set of books, you can see the frequency of any word or phrase you choose, tracing it throughout history, even comparing various words (like “war” and “peace” to find “war” has always been ahead). Try it out and play around with it. Here is the frequency of the four words in the Chimesfreedom subtitle. It is not surprising that the word “life” has been used so much more throughout history than the word “movies.”
You may also narrow the time period and adjust some of the factors. Although it is from a large number of books, one may argue about the accuracy and what conclusions one may really draw. But it is fun. You may even try curse words.
Here is a comparison of two famous movie icons and two music icons. The use of Bob Dylan’s name passed the use of Marilyn Monroe’s name in the last decade, but he is still behind John Wayne and the Beatles.
What searches did you try? Leave a comment.
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I did Mick Jaggar, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, and Charlie Watts from 1950 to 2004. I thought it would be predicable enough to use as a test. It is. Although there is never a time when Wood is more popular than Watts.