Two weeks ago, Google chucked a shiny new Web toy down the chimneys of Internet-research nerds everywhere: the Google Books Ngram Viewer, a search tool/treasure hunt that shows you the frequency of specific words in literature going back to the 1500s. (For example, it turns out the word “slavery” spikes during the Civil War and Civil Rights movement. Imagine that!) Thanks to data provided by Harvard-led “culturomics” researchers, Ngram supposedly trawls 5.2 million books — roughly “four percent of all books ever published,” its creators say. While the Ngram itself has spurred plenty of its own controversy — chiefly concerning whether or not its potentially spotty results are actually worth a damn — we thought we’d put it to work settling a few hotly contested local debates. Because everything comes down to a popularity contest, right?
BOSTON GLOBE VS. BOSTON HERALD | Winner: pre-1970: Herald; post-1970: Globe
HARVARD UNIVERSITY VS. MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | Winner: Harvard
BOSTON RED SOX VS. NEW YORK YANKEES | Winner: Yankees
BOSTON COLLEGE VS. BOSTON UNIVERSITY | Winner: BU
HOWIE CARR VS. WHITEY BULGER | Winner: pre-1996: Howie; post-1996: Whitey
Related:
Bully for BU!, Fourth-estate follies, 2009 edition, Menino's junked mail, More 
- Bully for BU!
After six years at the Phoenix , I recently got my first pre-emptive libel threat. It came, most unexpectedly, from an investigative reporter. And beyond the fact that this struck me as a blatant attempt at intimidation, it demonstrated how tricky journalism's new, collaboration-driven future could be.
- Fourth-estate follies, 2009 edition
Between the rise of the Web, the ADD-addling of America, the fragmentation of any national political consensus, and the devastated economy, working in the press can feel a bit like manning the Titanic — and this year, the entire industry seemed to teeter on the edge of oblivion.
- Menino's junked mail
Two years ago, when I wrote a column griping about the Boston media's apathy-inducing disinterest in city politics, Boston Globe metro editor Brian McGrory told me his paper had given the lackluster 2007 elections as much coverage as they deserved, but hinted that things would be different in 2009.
- The Globe's Plight
If history is just one damn thing after another, then we are living in undeniably historic times.
- Murdoch mishegoss
Never mind that Rupert Murdoch is shelling out better than $2 billion to buy Metromedia’s seven TV stations. Never mind that he’s then turning around and reselling Boston’s WCVB-TV, Channel 5 to the Hearst Corporation for an astounding $450 million.
- Peep show
Michael Grecco — 51, BU grad — first began making a name for himself as an award-winning photographer for the Boston Herald .
- Questioning the Legality of Straight Marriage
When it comes to supporting gay rights, two straight Boston University grads are putting their marriage where their mouths are.
- Tall stories
The Institute of Contemporary Art gets down and dirty this spring with Mexican artist Jerónimo López Ramírez, who's better known as DR. LAKRA — or, as they might say in his home of Oaxaca, "Dr. Delinquent."
- Review: Do It Again
As his 40th birthday looms, Boston Globe writer Geoff Edgers is on a mission to reunite the Kinks — a band who spat out a string of hits (“You Really Got Me,” “Lola”) and endured for decades, only to collapse from the sibling rivalry between founders Ray and Dave Davies.
- Review: Daddy Longlegs
For about an hour, Josh and Benny Safdie’s trendy indie about a deadbeat dad taking care of his two boys for two weeks in Manhattan seems like the kind of movie in which you hate everybody — especially the directors.
- Philadelphia Story
The local-media story line of the moment is the push by Stephen Taylor — Milton resident, Yale media lecturer, and former Boston Globe executive VP — to recapture the paper his family ran for more than a century, a goal he's pursuing with the backing of (among others) his cousin Benjamin Taylor, the former Globe publisher.
- He's number three
The conditions seem perfect for Kevin McCrea's latest YouTube video : warm for February, reasonably sunny, no sonic competition from nearby construction.
- Less
Topics:
Books
, Boston Red Sox, Boston University, Boston Globe, More
, Boston Red Sox, Boston University, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston College, New York Yankees, Harvard, MIT, Howie Carr, Whitey Bulger, Less
