Sure, Google is great. It's quick, it's gives you zillions of hits for whatever lame, bizarre terms you put in... but does it simulate a deathmatch between competing terms?

Now, through the power of the internets, we can rebuild Google. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first Smackdown Search Engine. Googlefight will be that search engine. Better than Google was before. Better . . . stronger . . . fightier.

I hear you asking, but how does it work, Richard? Well, let's look at an example from real life. There's a student in one of my classes who is troubled by the eons-old conflict between Pirates and Vikings. If a Pirate and a Viking got into a fight, he asks, clearly distraught over the unanswerability of his question, who would win? Given the extremely timely nature of his concern (see here for more on the long and glorious history of the many connections between pirates and blogging), and the revolutionary new Googlefight technology at our disposal, let's see what we can come up with.

Putting "pirate" and "viking" into the Googlefight keyword boxes, we see scenes like this:

Pretty exciting stuff!

Eventually, one stick-figure keyword wins and Googlefight shows you the score:

See, concerned student, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, you need fret no more. The finest scientific minds of our time have concluded that Pirates really do kick Viking butt.

Well, it's certainly been fun solving this age-old mystery once and for all. Join us next time on Digital Digressions, when we'll settle the controversy over who would would you rather have as support staff in your office/Hall-of-Super-Best-Friends: Avenger or Moses?

We'll see you next week!