Septembarrrrr 19th

Ahoy Mateys it be Talk Like a Pirate Day in lands here and across the seven seas.

Not long ago I was asked on Facebook to make a huge decision. A decision with consequences. I was asked to vote... Pirates or Ninjas?

Fast forward to today. With pirates on my mind this important day, I think back to that decision and once again ask myself, what are we searching for? Pirates or Ninjas?

You can see from the graph that while Ninjas have their place, in the world of web searching, that place is near the bottom. I thought Captain Jack Sparrow might have an influence in these stats, but it seems more than Capt. Jack is at work here. The pirates make the ninjas walk the plank from the beginning of our measured time.

So now it's your turn land lubber... Who arrrr you searching for? Pirates or Ninjas?

Misspelling Bee

Today's death match is near and dear to me.

Literally.

I live near the Smoky Mountains, so I see the misspellings of S-M-O-K-Y all the time. In fact, I've come to expect it. But I don't have to like it.

Just to be sure we're all together, here's a picture of the welcome sign:

There is no E in Smoky. And yet we see that a sizable percentage of searchers include the E. That's the most common error, but just for fun I decided to see if there are any more. Here's a list:

Smoky - Good

Smokey - Bad

Smokee - Bad

Smokie - Bad

Thankfully these others get little traffic. Could we be making some progress?

Now the question "Why would they keep doing this if it's not spelled that way?" begs to be asked. Well, my amateur opinion is there are many websites that misspell it too. So we have a loop of misspellings finding misspellings that feeds on itself. In essence the "I found it like that so it must be right" thing takes over.

I'm sure this is not the only case. Do you have a similar situation? Let me know and I'll do what I can to help you expose your favorite abuse too.

Elephants Never Forget, and Don't Seem to Search Much Either

Regular readers of this experiment will remember a few days ago we matched up the two Democratic front-runners in a battle to the death. Today we have two front-runners from the other side of the aisle.

And just as we think of these two Republicans being the opposite of the Democrats, so too we find the web traffic the opposite. If you remember (and if you don't here it is) the searching was fast and furious for our Democratic counterparts. Indeed it was back and forth with only the voters knowing the outcome.

With Republicans? Not so much. As you can see the link is almost flat, dead, until recently when some rumbling began about the possibility of Fred Thompson running. I think Rudy got a boost from that as both trends rise at roughly the same time. With Rudy already out there, and lots of buzz speculating about Fred, we see that Fred has ridden this close-to-the-vest strategy to roundly stomp Mr. Giuliani in the web search department.

Will this continue through to the end? Only you, the voter, can control that one. I think it will probably flatten out and get closer as the end nears. I think they'll all be more fun as we go.

Can You Search Me Now?

Having recently re-upped a cell phone contract I was thinking about cell phone competition. Competition for web searches that is.

So I pitted two biggies (one my provider) against each other. In this death match we have Verizon vs. Cingular. And with the recent purchase (and un-branding) of Cingular by AT&T, we threw that in for fun.

The results are easy to see. Verizon is the big talker. Even as the iPhone was hitting shelves (for AT&T), Verizon sees a bump in traffic. Very interesting.

Even going back to early 2004 Cingular makes a good showing, holding its own, but never can reach the level of search time that Verizon receives. Add in the new AT&T branding and the iPhone and you get a slight bounce around the iPhone launch.

Finally I noticed something strange... AT&T has removed the Cingular brand, but it's plain to see that Cingular was stomping AT&T on web search traffic. Hmmm... I didn't like the removal of the Cingular brand in the beginning and I like it less now. Why would you remove a brand that gets more web traffic?

Oh well, I'm sure Verizon's thrilled.

Tight Battle of Radio Alternatives

My wife works in radio and there is lots of chatter about alternatives to traditional radio. One of the biggest competitors in recent years is satellite radio and the two players are of course XM and Sirius.

Each has spent time in the news and each has done deals with different groups for content and unique programming. But let's face it, unless one or the other has something you specifically want to hear, they're mostly the same. Would you expect that to make this a close race?

Boy does it!! Look at those lines. Almost the same across the entire range. Of the death matches we've done to this point, this is the closest I've seen. I'm going to have to call this a draw as I can't see a true winner. I guess when one buys the other, that's all we'll have left to search for and we'll have the champ.

Kids Rule, Flynt Drools

I'm working on a family vacation for this fall to Disney World. Thoughts of Disney dancing in my head. Naturally anything on my mind becomes a potential web search death match.

My opinion? A good death match opponent for Disney would be some anti-Disney. Some organization so opposite that a head-to-head would create some interest. After some thought, Hustler came to mind. Yep, ole Flynt's bastion of porn. I can't think of many orgs that could be that anti-Disney, so it's on like Shere Khan.

Now, before anyone starts crying, I realize this isn't quite a fair fight. But (1) online porn is big and (2) I tried to find in the death match manual where a fight had to be fair. It's not there.

So we have the kids of America roundly spanking the babes of Larry Flynt. I guess the overall win wasn't unexpected, but the gap in traffic is surprising for me. I thought the online porn industry would at least make it a closer race.

Pole Dance

OK, the title is a teaser of sorts. Sorry to disappoint some of you.

What we're about today is the top versus the bottom. Of the world that is. The North Pole vs. the South Pole. It seems the top of the world has the upper hand in this one. Although I'm not completely surprised by this, I did think the environmental aspects, and the penguins marching, might make it closer than it is.

What we find is a flat line for the south pole and a higher, and spikey, line for the north pole. And big shocker here - the spikes are at the end of the year. Right around the time Santa is getting geared up for the late night toy run.

If anyone wants to setup a Santa blog and skim some of this end-of-year search traffic, be my guest. Just mention you got the idea from right here.

New Media Battle: Monitor vs. TV

Working on a fun project at work gave me an idea... I know YouTube is hot, but how hot compared to the traditional video outlets we've had for decades? You know who I'm talking about... the networks - NBC, ABC, and CBS.

It's obvious from this graph that the people are hungry for an alternative. You can see the beginning of the YT line in the 3rd quarter of 2005. In only six months, it had already overtaken the networks in search traffic. I'm a grizzled Internet veteran and that still shocks me.

Now of course the networks are scrambling to catch up by adding video of their own, but we all know they bow to the power and word-of-mouth virus that YouTube commands. What we're seeing here, in my opinion, is a complete turn in media from a "we'll show you what you want to see" to a "I'll find my own programming, thank you" delivery model.

Will the networks figure it out in time?? That's the big question, but I'm not holding my breath and I'm not buying network stocks either.

Man vs Woman for Superpower Control

Tomorrow I leave for my first trip to Washington D.C. so naturally my thoughts swing toward our beloved public servants who give up their careers and lives and families to serve our best interests. It's either that or think of the constant mudslinging and scandal and bribery and all the other time-honored greed that our nation's capital harbors.

OK, enough of the opinion column. We're about web searching here. And when it comes to politicians, few have the name power of Hillary Clinton. But as any politico knows, Barack Obama is hot on her heels to take the reigns of the Democratic party.

So we go way past the wondering and guessing and go for some facts here. And what we find is interesting. In the searching world, this is an extremely tight race. They trade spikes of interest, but overall this is one the exit polls just can't decide. Could it be we'll have to count chads to get this winner?

One interesting finding is the top line of public web searches have Hillary slightly ahead, but the lower line of news references has Barack slightly ahead. With everyone questioning the media these days, are they trying to make this more of a race? With one as tight as this, anything to make it more interesting is fine by me.

Kicking Butts and Searching Names

Life is good for those who suggest Web Search Death Matches. Why? Because you get thanked here in the blog, that's why. Who could want more? Thanks to Shane and Angel for this great idea. Two names from the 80s that are synonymous with someone putting a boot up your butt. Chuck Norris vs. Rambo.

If only the action flick makers from the decade of greed could have given us this one. Now we have to turn to the web searches for this dreamy matchup.

As you can see, this is quite the battle. Just as you would imagine, neither gives up an inch until late 2005 when Chuck Norris gives Rambo a solid roundhouse kick and takes a commanding lead. Never accepting defeat, Rambo comes back and retakes ground even taking a slight lead in mid-2007.

We end this tight race with Chuck Norris slightly ahead. But with a new Rambo movie on the horizon I wouldn't count John J. Rambo out of the fight just yet.

Making a Short Story Long

In honor of the tallest man in the world meeting the shortest man in the world, we have today's matchup. Giant vs. Midget.

In the real world you would expect a giant to crush and humiliate a midget, right? Those are the cruel ways of the Earth.

But as you know not everything is as it seems. Often the electronically blinking world of digitalia shows us something new and disturbing.

Well forget about anything new on this one folks. It's business as usual here in the world of web searching as the giants stomp the midgets rather rudely.

(Thank you Lia for this wonderful matchup)

Owner of a Lonely Heart

Today's post is in response to my mood... sad. As mentioned in my last post, my great friend and coworker Angel has left for better things. While I couldn't be happier for her, it's pretty much bummed me. She's moving far away and it will be a while before I'm able to see her again. Thank goodness for email !!

OK, so I'm looking for any kind of happiness today and the web searches found it for me. Thankfully happiness beats out sadness by a good margin. I know it's out there, it just seems hard to find today. Maybe I need to head on over to Google and do some happiness searching myself.

Take This Job And Search It

Today's post is inspired by my great friend and (at this moment almost) former coworker, Angel. She's quitting today to move on in her life. So naturally this moment makes me think of getting a job and quitting a job.

Yes, we hear lots of stuff about people looking for jobs. You get friends asking you all the time, "Hey, if something opens up, let me know." And of course there are monster.com and hotjobs.com and yahoojobs.com so we know there is demand for jobs.

But what about quitting? You have to quit one to take another right? And so many people are tired of their jobs or complain about them. Get a job vs. Quit a job should be a truly close death match. Shouldn't it??

What a let-down !! Quitters you're letting me down ! We went from a true battle to this. Virtually no searching going on about quitting a job. Oh well, I know you quitters are out there.... Make some noise people!

Three-fer Thursday

Three beer Thursday brings us a heady battle of the suds.

The marketing dollars flow like wine for these three brands, attempting to get us to taste their frothy goodness. But we're above all that, right?

Of course we are. We're only about the ice cold reality of web searching. And what we find is Bud is truly the undisputed king. There are moments where Miller makes a decent showing, but overall it's not as close as I thought it would be. Especially surprising is Coors getting roundly stomped.

I'm guessing this equates to market share too, but that's for another time, another blog.

The Battle for Eco Earth

Here's one I was particulary curious about. With all the eco talk going around, just how serious are we about saving the world?

It turns out we're pretty serious. As you can see the Prius hands the Yukon a fairly large smackdown. Score one for Al Gore.

For more interesting details, see this link. Pay special attention to the states and countries listed. Even in the land of Texas, where SUVs are large and in charge, the Prius eeks out a win.

The world may have a chance at survival even yet.

A battle for the aged

I thought a good kick-off to this here silliness would be to match our good friend and blog namesake DEATH, against the arch-enemy LIFE.

The results are surprising. I thought the fascination with Death surely would overcome the desire by most to hold onto Life, but alas it was not to be.

In a not-so-close one, Life defeats Death in our opening round.

Check it out here

Let's Get This Party Started...

Have you ever wondered how much people search for stuff? I did. Then I had the most wonderful, awful idea...

The idea of matching stuff up in a battle to the death to see who or what had more search popularity. Then I added another beastly layer...

Share the carnage with everyone by way of a blog. One with black for emphasis.

So there you have it. The bonehead-simple reason for this blog. I intend to provide a new death match every day. Well, I'll probably take the weekends off depending on how I feel.

Feel free to wreak havoc with comments and suggestions.