Heidi, Scrive Heidi haLevi <heidi@processing.co.il>:
Just like the results SPSS delivers depends, of course, on the data file, which you can manipulate as you like it. Does that make SPSS an unreliable tool?
uhm... may i nonchalantly point out here the vast difference between changing the content of the data file and changing the content of the query run on the data file?
That's what I meant, I should have been more clear about it: You can have 8 potential indicators for class location of a person, and depending on the statistical method you are using, and the selction and/or combination of the indicators, your results will vary. If you choose bad indicators (such as "sex (m/f)" for class location in SPSS or "MacDonalds" for McDonald's' popularity in googlefight, your results might become misleading.
heh - kinda neat to consider the internet under that title: an open data file.
Err. How else would you conceptualize it?
thus - as with every statistical analysis - the form of the query should be carefully matched to the research question as well as to the form of the data and of the file. in this case, the data sample is actually the population/field, and google's particular form of the 'data file' (or the determination of which variables are accessible for measurement and how) is closed and not within our reach, and also determines the possible "statistic analyses" - which are very primitive (though certainly always statistically significant).
an interesting situation, to be approached and used with caution.
I hate to write that: I agree. Well, except, why should all statistical analyses on the Google "corpus" always be primitive? BTW: Besides google fight there is also googleshare (http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/000011.html): Unfortunately, there only seems to be a Flash implementation for Internet Explorer right now: http://www.rundogrun.com/Samples/MindShare.HTML Thomas -- thomas koenig, ph.d. department of social sciences, loughborough university, u.k. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/staff/thomas/index.html