Google added a new search filter option to their advanced search page called “Reading Level”… Hilarity ensues below:
38% of the content is intermediate… not too bad I guess right?
Hmmm… looks like Steve from TheFirearmBlog has me beat intellectually but not by that much.
Linoge from WallsOfTheCity always has intelligent things to say. No surprise he ranks high in intermediate… I am surprised he has 0% in Advanced though. (chalk a win up for my sub 1% hehe)
LOL Apparently Say Uncle writes for the upper crust of the gun blog world. who knew? He even beats out The New Yorker and Harper’s .. and those are some high-class hoity-toity sites.
In all fairness I assume my low ranking is probably due to my typos and extensive use of colloquialisms (that last word ought to boost me up .001% in Advanced). Lucky my goal was never to mold the minds of the world leaders and scholars of tomorrow.
Sorry if this blog is making you dumber than when you started following it. :P
JUMP DOWN ↓ TO ADD ANOTHER
LOL, that is funny. I better start using bigger words and the thesaurus more ;)
It’s says mine’s 100% Basic… Garbage I say! Garbage!
hahaha
Wow. Given that Uncle’s posts rarely stretch above 20 words, I really have to wonder what the calculation engine they are employing is…
I read somewhere that they hired a bunch of teachers to read web pages and score them based on what they felt the reading level to be. Then they used those pages and scores as the basis for the algorithm to score web pages. It sounded like it was based largely (or maybe entirely) on word choice. So, the more words you use that send the average person running to a dictionary, the higher the reading level of your page. It also said that Google Scholar documents were used as a basis for the advanced reading level.
With respect to SayUncle – that’s not a blog I look at, except on rare occasion when I see a link to it (like in this case). But, with his posts being so short, there are more technical terms specific to firearms and company names relative to the total number of words in the post than there would be for most other blogs. That’s probably what pushes it into the “advanced” level.
Bleh. I was typing the below when you submitted the above :).
That said, I suppose that explanation makes sense in light of the outcome… It is said that the metrics I mentioned below also tend to reward shorter sentences comprised of specific words, but I have never sat down long enough to do the crunching myself. And if “technical” equates to “advanced” (a scary thought), then I can see Unc’s posts scooting upwards.
Yeah, I call foul on Google. Using the slightly-more-mature metrics of Gunning Fog Index, Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesh-Kincaid Grade, my weblog scores 11.37 (just above the WSJ), 62.33 (higher scores are “more readable”), and 7.8 (more-or-less equates to grade) respectively. Unc’s weighs in at 6.93 (just above Mark Twain), 79.70, and 4.08. You score 7.89 (just shy of Reader’s Digest), 68.33, and 5.31.
Can run the numbers for yourself here. Now I am really wondering about the engine employed by Google…
haha I remember looking at those reading levels in MS word back when I was little in school writing papers. Regardless of if it’s accurate, it’s a big ego boost for a computer to tell you that you write at a grade 12 level when you’re in grade 6. :P
This is fun. I find out I have 0% advanced, 84% intermediate, and 15% basic. Given I write a lot about gun law and gun rights cases I shouldn’t be surprised.
This is way too much fun! Thanks for another way to waste my time. After checking some other sites that I consider to be intellectually higher end, I have to agree with Josh and Linoge that the algorithm needs some work.
I rated
Basic 32%
Intermediate 66%
Advanced 1%
My English teachers would be so proud! 19 years ago I could only say “cheesburger, fries, coke” and “Where is bathroom please?”
Make that 29 years ago.
Interestingly, Google puts my blog at 100% intermediate. The site Linoge linked to, using the Gunning Fog Index, Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesh-Kincaid Grade, gives me 8.69, 69.04, and 5.66. So, depending on the algorithm being used, I’m writing somewhere between a 5th grade and 9th grade level.
I think that’s about where you want to be when writing for a general audience, really.
Yea that’s probably true!
I’ve posted my results on my blog ….
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