Have you wondered about how mankind has changed over the years? Have you ever wanted to read all of the available books to find out (YES!)? Because there is a lot of information to be found in the billions of words that have been written that can be reviewed to find the trends over time. We’ve all heard that Google is currently digitizing as much of the world library as they can. While this protects the words of millions of authors, it also gives us a tool to view humanity. Google Labs Ngram Viewer shows data that tells a huge story about what is happening within civilization:
- popularity of a topic
- themes of a time
- suppression and popularity of an author
- social wellbeing
- and so much more
Watch the Ted Talk given by Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel, because it’s an interesting and hilarious presentation on a powerful tool. Then give the tool a try to see what you want to track within the world library: I want to try the Google Ngram Viewer!
