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Mapping Google News

Posted by timothy on from the that-hansel-he's-so-hot-right-now dept.

CousinLarry writes "A neat project called Buzztracker.org has been mining Google News for over a year and keeping track of relationships between geographic locations mentioned in articles. The results are some really cool maps that actually seem to reflect the "buzz" of the day - check out the Vatican clusters from earlier this month, or the global New Year's chatter. You can also dig down into the articles from which the maps were generated."

1 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Nov 3rd? Dec 26? by mzieg · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I have to question the results a bit. Look at the archive for November 2004, especially around Nov 3rd . Anyone remember any "buzz" about Ohio? Maybe a Florida 2000 reprisal? "Battleground States," anyone? That was a hugely geographic news event, and it doesn't even register on their chart. Likewise, Sumatra barely merits a blip on Dec 26. I'm not sure I'm buying this.

    What we have here is one computer algorithm aggregating another computer algorithm's assessment of "newsworthy," with no provision for hindsight or fluff-vs-historical weighting. It's a neat idea, and the graphics are pretty slick, but I don't see any real value here.