Re: "folks realize that using the "number of hits returned on google" is a hilarious bad way to prove a point -- right?" A couple of points for the debate from the webometrics research field... The research field of webometrics uses search engines quite a lot for raw data such as hit counts and link counts, and the findings indicate that whilst there are individual anomalies, on average, hit counts tend to reflect underlying real differences. This research is summarized in two recent review chapters: Bar-Ilan, J. (2004). The Use of Web Search Engines in Information Science Research. In: Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 38 Thelwall, M., Vaughan, L. & Björneborn, L. (2005). Webometrics. In: Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 39, 81-135. However, you would probably guess that commercial search engines like Google have a significant international bias, which should be taken in to account when counting hits. But this bias is not deliberately manufactured or due to language factors, it stems from the history of the web and the way in which links are used in web crawling. See: Vaughan, L. & Thelwall, M. (2004). Search engine coverage bias: evidence and possible causes, Information Processing & Management, 40(4), 693-707. http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1993/papers/search_engine_bias_preprint.pdf Mike Thelwall Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/ http://linkanalysis.wlv.ac.uk/ http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1993/mycv.html