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Caitlin Fitz Gerald on Drones, Polarization, and Google Autofill

Benjamin Wittes
Sunday, March 24, 2013, 5:16 PM
Over at the graphical Drawnward blog, Caitlin Fitz Gerald has figured out an interesting way of illustrating our increasingly polarized attitudes over drones. She typed "drones are" into Google and grabbed a screen shot of the suggested searches Google generated---which are based on the most common searches that begin with the phrased typed in.

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Over at the graphical Drawnward blog, Caitlin Fitz Gerald has figured out an interesting way of illustrating our increasingly polarized attitudes over drones. She typed "drones are" into Google and grabbed a screen shot of the suggested searches Google generated---which are based on the most common searches that begin with the phrased typed in. Here's what turned up:

Writes Fitz Gerald, "Hm . . . . so there might be just an eensy bit of disagreement on what drones are . . ." She also makes a neat set of images out of Google's autofill responses to  “drones are just flying,” “drones are basically flying,” and “drones are flying.” But you'll have to visit the site to see that one.

Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.

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