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Dueling words in cyberspace
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November 3, 2003
Geoff Peters says that in the virtual world, Coke reigns over Pepsi, and Britney Spears tops Christina Aguilera.
That's according to a web-based device he created called GoogleDuel, designed to compare the popularity of words or phrases for general interest web users as well as writers and business marketers.
Peters, a third-year computing science and business major, created GoogleDuel in his spare time to experiment with Google Web Services, the most highly used web search provider. He took advantage of Google's developers' program, which encourages computer programmers to make creative use of Google's search tools.
Web services are emerging standards that allow web sites to access resources from other websites, and combine information in new ways.
GoogleDuel, which runs on the SFU server, enables companies to see how their name stands up against other similar companies on the internet and gauge the effectiveness of their web presence.It can be accessed through Googleduel.com or through Peters' personal website www.sfu.ca/~gpeters/. To date it has had more than 20,000 hits, with up to 1,000 a day following mentions in Cnet.com's news service, a Japanese technology magazine and the USA Today.
Peters maintains a log of GoogleDuel inquiries to track the words being compared. Most are popular names, famous people or products.
An accomplished jazz piano player, Peters' ideas took root last year while playing with his band, Lounge Consortium. Music Explorer is yet another example of innovative software, which he created for a computing science multimedia systems course. It allows users to select part of a sound file and analyse which frequencies are present. Music educators have expressed interest in the software.
Peters also performs with SFU's choir, the jazz club and as part of a jazz duo, Double Blind, which recorded its first CD in January.
While GoogleDuel is a fairly simply concept, Peters says it provides some insights into the way language is used on the internet. "It's an example of how web services can turn a search engine into an entertaining language research tool," he says, adding, "it's all about providing more information to make a better decision."
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Contact
Geoff Peters, gpeters@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl Media & PR 604.291.4323; marianne_meadahl@sfu.ca
That's according to a web-based device he created called GoogleDuel, designed to compare the popularity of words or phrases for general interest web users as well as writers and business marketers.
Peters, a third-year computing science and business major, created GoogleDuel in his spare time to experiment with Google Web Services, the most highly used web search provider. He took advantage of Google's developers' program, which encourages computer programmers to make creative use of Google's search tools.
Web services are emerging standards that allow web sites to access resources from other websites, and combine information in new ways.
GoogleDuel, which runs on the SFU server, enables companies to see how their name stands up against other similar companies on the internet and gauge the effectiveness of their web presence.It can be accessed through Googleduel.com or through Peters' personal website www.sfu.ca/~gpeters/. To date it has had more than 20,000 hits, with up to 1,000 a day following mentions in Cnet.com's news service, a Japanese technology magazine and the USA Today.
Peters maintains a log of GoogleDuel inquiries to track the words being compared. Most are popular names, famous people or products.
An accomplished jazz piano player, Peters' ideas took root last year while playing with his band, Lounge Consortium. Music Explorer is yet another example of innovative software, which he created for a computing science multimedia systems course. It allows users to select part of a sound file and analyse which frequencies are present. Music educators have expressed interest in the software.
Peters also performs with SFU's choir, the jazz club and as part of a jazz duo, Double Blind, which recorded its first CD in January.
While GoogleDuel is a fairly simply concept, Peters says it provides some insights into the way language is used on the internet. "It's an example of how web services can turn a search engine into an entertaining language research tool," he says, adding, "it's all about providing more information to make a better decision."
- 30 -
Contact
Geoff Peters, gpeters@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl Media & PR 604.291.4323; marianne_meadahl@sfu.ca