James Van Braagh

[BillyJoe]

Another distinction for the JREF thus occurs to me: Google now lists 910,000 – the number changes often – references to my name. How can people find so many comments to make about me?

Incidentally, I got 1,290,000 hits.

 

[Zep]

How can people find so many comments to make about me?

It's always the same comment, Jimmy: Van Praagh is a slimeball.

 

[Captain Trips]

Incidentally, I got 1,290,000 hits.

Make sure your search term is "James Randi" and not James Randi -- that is, placing the name in double quotes. Otherwise, your search includes all sites with James as well as with Randi. (Boolean search.) I actually got more like 800,000 hits, but, as Randi said, it is constantly changing. Still quite a respectable number.

 

[Kaarjuus]

Make sure your search term is "James Randi" and not James Randi -- that is, placing the name in double quotes. Otherwise, your search includes all sites with James as well as with Randi.

Correction: the second search includes all sites that mention both James AND Randi, while the first search includes the sites that have the phrase "James Randi".

 

[BillyJoe]

I knew I'd learn something useful even out of such an unpromising thread as this.

        james:  425,000,000
        randi:    8,750,000
  james randi:    1,320,000
"james randi":      920,000

 

[davefoc]

Same experiment on yahoo
James - about 406,000,000
Randi - about 4,700,000
James Randi - about 4,050,000
"james randi" - about 498,000

 

[BillyJoe]

Notice how Randi has googled his own name but then puts it down as a distinction for the JREF. Almost like he knew he was bragging and so tried to deflect any criticism.

Gotcha!

 

[BillyJoe]

Actually, now the reason becomes clear:

"James Randi Educational Foundation": 320,000
                              "JREF": 523,000
  James Randi Educational Foundation: 557,000
                                JREF: 641,000

JREF did not get as many hits as James Randi, so he used the James Randi results for the JREF.

There is a Fallacy in there somewhere.

 

[rjh01]

Q. Why would JREF give a different answer than "JREF"?

 

[fls]

Q. Why would JREF give a different answer than "JREF"?

Because JREF includes hits where the letters are part of a longer string.

Linda

 

[rjh01]

Thanks. Did a search on JREF myself. Found it has another meaning other than what we know.

 

[Pyrrho]

There's a different JREF, ayup.

40,500 hits on this search for "James Randi" in Google's Usenet service:

http://groups-beta.google.com/groups/search?q="james+randi"&qt_s=Search+Groups

8,980 hits in this Google Groups search for JREF

http://groups-beta.google.com/groups/search?q=jref&qt_s=Search

108,000 for "Geller". Heh.

 

[Pyrrho]

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=James+Randi&word2=Uri+Geller