The Google Similarity Distance

Words and phrases acquire meaning from the way they are used in society, from their relative semantics to other words and phrases. For computers the equivalent of `society' is `database,' and the equivalent of `use' is `way to search the database.' We present a new theory of similarity between words and phrases based on information distance and Kolmogorov complexity. To fix thoughts we use the world-wide-web as database, and Google as search engine. The method is also applicable to other search engines and databases. This theory is then applied to construct a method to automatically extract similarity, the Google similarity distance, of words and phrases from the world-wide-web using Google page counts. The world-wide-web is the largest database on earth, and the context information entered by millions of independent users averages out to provide automatic semantics of useful quality. We give applications in hierarchical clustering, classification, and language translation. We give examples to distinguish between colors and numbers, cluster names of paintings by 17th century Dutch masters and names of books by English novelists, the ability to understand emergencies, and primes, and we demonstrate the ability to do a simple automatic English-Spanish translation. Finally, we use the WordNet database as an objective baseline against which to judge the performance of our method. We conduct a massive randomized trial in binary classification using support vector machines to learn categories based on our Google distance, resulting in an a mean agreement of 87% with the expert crafted WordNet categories.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures; changed some text/figures/notation/part of theorem. Incorporated referees comments. This is the final published version up to some minor changes in the galley proof

Googling to Forget: The Cognitive Processing of Internet Search

Technology is currently extremely integrated with everyday life. Popular media has made bold claims that the internet is making us “dumber” and people struggle to remember information more now than they ever have in the past. Scientific research on the effect of internet search on cognition and memory is still in its infancy. This research will analyze the literature and theories discussing memory and the internet. Based on an original experiment by Sparrow, Liu, and Wegner. 20 participants (10 young adults and 10 older adults) performed a typing task with twenty trivia statements, followed by a recall and recognition memory test to look for the effects of directed forgetting and transactive memory. This experiment did not replicate the effect found in the original experiment. It calls to question if the effect of transactive memory is applicable to social relationships that only include a person and a computer

No Search Results in Fairness: Addressing Jurors' Independent Research in the 21st Century

The right to a fair trial is one of the fundamental pillars on which the criminal justice system stands. In the digital age of the 21st century, that pillar has increasingly come under siege due to the rise of the "Googling juror". In light of the recent proposals by the Law Commission to address this problem, this article does two things. It begins by investigating the reasons why jurors conduct independent research in the digital age, before proposing methods to prevent jurors from doing so. This article argues that jurors are researching in greater numbers than in the past due to cognitive changes to people's brains in the digital age. Those cognitive changes are the increasing use of the Internet as a transactive memory partner, people's need for instantaneous knowledge and people's reliance on the Internet for everyday needs. Given these findings, this article argues that the Law Commission's proposals are insufficient; to deal with the problem the judicial system must modernise. This article puts forward three proposals: deploying more technology in the courtroom, implementing a comprehensive system of judicial education and empowering jurors to ask more questions. It finally concludes that if the judicial system modernises, trial by jury can and should persist.&nbsp

An investigation into the ‘I can Google it’ information seeking behaviour of the academic communities in the Maldives and Australia

This thesis is a phenomenological inquiry of the “I can Google it” information seeking behaviour in academic communities from two economically diverse countries – Maldives and Australia. It investigates how the googling phenomenon impacts the provision of academic library services

Glu: An Online Type 1 Diabetes Information Community

This research paper examines the online health community Glu (MyGlu.org), a type 1 diabetes social media site. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic medical condition that requires constant and specialized medical attention. Online health communities like Glu, are an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle for many of its members. This study discusses the composition of this information community, the motivations of its members, and the benefits members gain through their participation. It describes the major characteristics of the community and focuses on the information needs of type 1 diabetics. It concludes with reflections on how libraries and LIS professionals can better serve the information needs of health communities like Glu and accommodate their needs in the physical space of the library