Friday Nugget Blogging
By If there is a New Zealand, is there a Zealand?
Officially of course, the answer is yes. (I admit I had to look it up to see where the original Zealand is.)
But on the English internet, the answer is for all intents and purposes “no.” Or at least, nothing ever happens there. Go looking on Google for news of “Zealand,” for example, and all you get is search terms for New Zealand.
Hardly surprising in itself, but especially interesting in the context of this brand new book, The Filter Bubble, by Eli Pariser. In a recent TED talk, the author summarizes the argument:
Makes me want to rethink how I have students gather web and social media data next time I use an assignment like this. H/T Wes Mason and Siva Vaidhyanathan, whose book the Googlization of Everything makes similar points.