Google Speeds Up Quest for Knowledge in Books
For centuries people have been searching for knowledge in books -- but never before in the way Google has now made possible, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.
The search giant has digitally copied 5.2 million books published since 1500.
From those they have built a database of 500 billion words -- and made it available for all to search.
The result: a new Google tool that provides instant insight into language, culture and trends over time.
Here's how it works: Put in a word like "teenager" and discover that the term was almost unused until the 1950s.
Put in two words: "Men" and "Women" and discover that while men dominated for centuries they have been in sharp decline since the 1940, while women have come on strong.
Put in "saving" and "spending" and discover that in literature as in life "spending" shot up from the 1980s while "saving" went nowhere.
"And you can go on the system and actually see these phrases wax and wane," said Geoff Nunberg, linguist at the University of California at Berkeley. "I think that's fabulous."
For Nunberg, who spent a career studying the cultural significance of words, Google is serving up a feast.
When did people start talking about "arugula"?
"That goes back at you to the 60s too and you see the curve go straight up. At the same time you can see, pork and beans going down," said Nunberg.
It may not be news that "groovy" peaked in 1972, but guess what? It's been making a steady comeback for more than a decade.
History is reflected in "War" and "Peace." "War" has always been on top, getting understandably big bumps during the two world wars.
But for all the information that Google is processing linguist Nunberg reminds us that it all begins on the printed page.
"This is really great technology," said Nunberg. "It's lasted about 1,500 years - the codex - and it'll be around another 1,500 years."
You can spend plenty of time for this discovering, for example, that "dogs" have been way ahead of "cats" since the 1740s.