Google's search engine from 2001 - Look at what I found

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the comparison of Google's search engine results from 2001 with current results, highlighting trends in search frequency for various terms and figures. Participants explore implications of these results, particularly in the context of political figures and economic issues, while also reflecting on historical predictions regarding economic crises.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Historical

Main Points Raised

  • Participants compare search results from 2001 and today for terms like "physicsforums," "Barack Obama," and "iPod," noting significant differences in search frequency.
  • Some participants express concern that warnings about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's potential collapse were ignored, suggesting that the current economic crisis could have been averted.
  • There is a discussion about the relative search popularity of political figures, with some noting that Ron Paul had significantly more hits than others like Biden and Palin.
  • One participant mentions that search counts may not reflect positive recognition, as they could include negative references.
  • Another participant highlights that the search results for Facebook in 2001 were notably low compared to its current popularity.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a mix of agreement and disagreement regarding the implications of the search results, with some emphasizing the predictive nature of past warnings while others question the significance of search counts as indicators of public recognition.

Contextual Notes

Participants rely on the indexed search results from Google without clarifying the context or methodology behind the search counts, leading to potential misunderstandings about the implications of these numbers.

RetardedBastard
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Google's search engine from 2001 -- Look at what I found!

In celebration of their 10th anniversary, Google has posted it's search engine results and data going all the way back to January 2001: http://www.google.com/search2001.html

Sounds interesting... so I decided to compare search results from today and those from 2001. Here are the results (now / 2001):

"physicsforums" (17,500,000 / 0)
Barack Obama (71,200,000 / 771)
"Sarah Palin" (20,300,000 / 0)
iPod (418,000,000 / 1,300)
wikipedia (286,000,000 / 681)


But THIS is the most interesting gem I discovered:
search terms: "fannie mae" "freddie mac" collapse (785 results)

and this little jewel from all the way back in 2000 during a testimony before the House Banking Committee (the first link from google's 2001 archived search results):
Clearly Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created for “good” purposes – now the issue is whether the special privileges they’ve been granted, specifically their implicit government “insurance” policy, act to distort and destabilize the marketplace.​
(http://web.archive.org/web/20010916040429/www.cei.org/RemarksReader.asp?ID=1035" )

Oh wait, I'm not done:

"Our worry is that GSEs could become the savings and loans of the coming decade, with taxpayers getting the bill for a bailout that will make the S&L crisis look like chump change."

If Freddie and Fannie continue their attempts to expand their reach into subprime and jumbo mortgages, there is a real danger of collapse​
(http://web.archive.org/web/20010410165029/www.cagw.org/mediacenter/newsrel/search/00-03-09.htm" )

Wow! They were saying this in 2000! It's quite disheartening to see that our current economic crisis could have been prevented had the government paid attention within the last 8 years!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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RetardedBastard said:
In celebration of their 10th anniversary, Google has posted it's search engine results and data going all the way back to January 2001: http://www.google.com/search2001.html

Sounds interesting... so I decided to compare search results from today and those from 2001. Here are the results (now / 2001):

"physicsforums" (17,500,000 / 0)
Barack Obama (71,200,000 / 771)
"Sarah Palin" (20,300,000 / 0)
iPod (418,000,000 / 1,300)
wikipedia (286,000,000 / 681)


But THIS is the most interesting gem I discovered:
search terms: "fannie mae" "freddie mac" collapse (785 results)

and this little jewel from all the way back in 2000 during a testimony before the House Banking Committee (the first link from google's 2001 archived search results):
Clearly Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created for “good” purposes – now the issue is whether the special privileges they’ve been granted, specifically their implicit government “insurance” policy, act to distort and destabilize the marketplace.​
(http://web.archive.org/web/20010916040429/www.cei.org/RemarksReader.asp?ID=1035" )

Oh wait, I'm not done:

"Our worry is that GSEs could become the savings and loans of the coming decade, with taxpayers getting the bill for a bailout that will make the S&L crisis look like chump change."

If Freddie and Fannie continue their attempts to expand their reach into subprime and jumbo mortgages, there is a real danger of collapse​
(http://web.archive.org/web/20010410165029/www.cagw.org/mediacenter/newsrel/search/00-03-09.htm" )

Wow! They were saying this in 2000! It's quite disheartening to see that our current economic crisis could have been prevented had the government paid attention within the last 8 years!

This is proof now that Obama has more national exposure than Sarah Palin. I hope Biden brings up these numbers tonight in the debate.
 
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Wow! They were saying this in 2000! It's quite disheartening to see that our current economic crisis could have been prevented had the government paid attention within the last 8 years!

there's nothing new here. People saw this coming 10 years ago and encouraged this type of business. Its just another scenario where the rich get richer and the poorer get poorer. I'm more than sure the government knew about it, they just didn't do anything because a lot of them made money off it.
 


This is unreal!

Facebook only got 1801!

579,000,000 now!
 


Hmm. Ron Paul got more than four times the hits of Biden, Palin and Obama combined.

"John McCain" - 158,000
"Sarah Palin" - 0

"Barak Obama" - 31
"Joe Biden" - 3,240

"Ron Paul" - 13,400
 


B. Elliott said:
Hmm. Ron Paul got more than four times the hits of Biden, Palin and Obama combined.

"John McCain" - 158,000
"Sarah Palin" - 0

"Barak Obama" - 31
"Joe Biden" - 3,240

"Ron Paul" - 13,400
I did half of those searches just gathering information against him. Lots of searches isn't always a good thing.
 


Evo said:
I did half of those searches just gathering information against him. Lots of searches isn't always a good thing.

Well good or bad. I just used it as a gauge for overall knownness in '01.
 


B. Elliott said:
Hmm. Ron Paul got more than four times the hits of Biden, Palin and Obama combined.

"John McCain" - 158,000
"Sarah Palin" - 0

"Barak Obama" - 31
"Joe Biden" - 3,240

"Ron Paul" - 13,400

Ron Paul must have been relatively QUITE well-known considering that then governor Mike Huckabee only got 10500 hits and soon to be released "Windows XP" only 1,580.
 


Evo said:
I did half of those searches just gathering information against him. Lots of searches isn't always a good thing.

Evo, I can not believe you havn't said/done this yet... "David Deutsch" gets 3,380 results!
 
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Evo said:
I did half of those searches just gathering information against him. Lots of searches isn't always a good thing.

It's not counts of searches, it's counts of websites Google has indexed. But, same idea applies...they could all be websites talking about how bad they are.