Google News Rankings of Democratic Candidates

You all have probably seen Google news rankings used as a measure of candidate buzz. To me, they indicate something altogether different: systematic bias in the media. These rankings do not closely match polling numbers or other measures of buzz, such as meetup numbers. They more closely match fundraising numbers, but the match isn't perfect and leaves a lot to be explained.

I'm going to make an effort to document this bias on a weekly basis. If I have the gumption or the time, I may dig in a little and analyze. For now I'm just going to present the results.

All numbers are approximate. All are fetched within minutes of each other. All use full names in quotation marks, without titles. For common hypocoristics (e.g. "Bob" for "Robert") both versions of the name used with the operator OR.

For Sunday, October 5th, just after 11:00 Pacific.

1. "Howard Dean" 6280
2. "Wesley Clark" 5890
3. "John Kerry" 4670
4. "Joe Lieberman" OR "Joseph Lieberman" 4110
5. "John Edwards" 3720
6. "Dick Gephardt" OR "Richard Gephardt" 3230
7. "Bob Graham" OR "Robert Graham" 3210
8. "Al Sharpton" 1890
9. "Dennis Kucinich" 1880
10."Carol Moseley Braun" 1090.

Show me some more. What is the Bush buzz number?

A lot of bloggers were doing it earlier this year. A few call it "the interesting times method" after that blog, but I don't know who really did it first. Others have used variations to account for different ways of refering to a candidate.

Actually, if you go to interesting times right now there's a chart up showing the history of google news polls. I guess that makes my little attempt rather pointless.

Interesting chart. Notice any constants?


By the way, current hits for Bush are:

"Bush" 28,100,
"George Bush" 4510,
"George W. Bush" OR "George Bush" 11,500
"President Bush" 25,200

You can get only blog entries from daypop, and there was at least one blogger I know of who used to track those. You can imagine how they skew. I haven't seen or blogdex or technorati rankings--daypop's probably better for current trends, but if you really want to analyze buzz take a look at technorati.

^^^^^^

http://www.wftv.com/news/2526864/detail.html

SNIP..."Gov. Jeb Bush chided current Democratic front-runner Howard Dean in the race for the White House, labeling Dean a candidate for "hot, angry people that aren't rational." ...

SNIP....""Dean's my man. I'm a big Dean guy," said Gov. Bush, his voice dripping with the kind of sarcasm he has often used to chide political opponents. The governor will serve as his brother's Florida campaign chairman...."

What a lovely gov we have here. Such a nice attitude, and so not partisan.

:evilgrin: