Further proof — as though any were needed — that the brains trust at Google are a bright bunch comes with the unveiling of an experimental website called “Google In Quotes” that places quotations on any given subject from the two U.S. presidential candidates side by side.
What's more, it's available in a Canadian edition — as well as an Indian and British edition.
The quotations come from newspaper websites that are indexed by Google News; you get a three- or four-line quote, with a link under it to the newspaper page where it was found, and the date it was published.
At the top is a list of the subjects covered. Among them are abortion, Bush, change, economy, environment, health care, housing, Iran, oil, recession and taxes. Click on any one and you will be presented with the relevant passages. A link labelled “Spin” will scroll back through previous comments on a selected issue.
Similarly, for Canada, the subjects include Afghanistan, Arctic, carbon tax, environment, jobs, Quebec and sovereignty.
And in all of them, you can find a drop-down box that allows you to change the people whose quotes are comparing Stepehen Harper, say, to Jack Layton on the issues.
Google is calling it an experimental tool, and it carries a stern disclaimer, saying that “Quotes and their speakers are determined automatically by a computer program and we don't guarantee the completeness or accuracy of the information you may see.” I also found some glitches (I kept getting “stack overflow” errors while scrolling through the quotes).
There's room for only two party leaders on the page; with three or more party leaders in one country, you can still compare only two of them at a time. And one is also left wondering whether Google is playing politics by not including all the political parties in a country; where, for instance, is the Green Party and its leader Elizabeth May?
The concept is sound, making a more intelligent voter out of anyone who spends some time with the tool.
