Iran Tracker: Google shows what is really going on in Iran

June 8, 2005 3:32 AM

Iran Tracker: Google shows what is really going on in Iran by recording and comparing search results for various keywords.
posted by hoder (8 comments total)

Isn't this more of a Bush Administration tracker? It's not like the Iranians are talking about themselves.

It would be interesting to apply this tool to the pre-war hype about Iraq and see when the same trends start showing up with regard to Iran.
posted by three blind mice at 3:43 AM on June 8, 2005

Are they really searching for teakwondo ? if so that sorta reduces my faith in their results.
posted by handee at 3:47 AM on June 8, 2005

It appears to be broken or swamped. Too bad.
posted by OmieWise at 6:16 AM on June 8, 2005

S'not broken. Just very, very bizarre.

I agree with three blind mice. I don't really see how hearsay and googlisms could possibly correlate poignant data. This is the sort of frivolous use of google that should remain in 'Google Battle' 'Googlewhacking' and perhaps even 'Google cooking', not for guessing at suppose torture and execution.
posted by mnemosyne at 7:49 AM on June 8, 2005

*supposed
posted by mnemosyne at 7:49 AM on June 8, 2005

I got in this time. It's kind of a cool idea, but seems much more rhetorical than it is concrete.
posted by OmieWise at 8:38 AM on June 8, 2005

Um.

How are they getting this data? Does google publish raw query totals?

(or is this based on the number of results returned? I don't think those are going to change all that much)
posted by delmoi at 8:52 AM on June 8, 2005

Hossein Derakhshan is the one who came with the original idea to keep track of Google results for Iranian politicians. He lives in Canada and has a popular Persian weblog

uh, hoder?
posted by puke & cry at 10:21 PM on June 10, 2005