Google lets users measure the power of words

Number-crunchers can rejoice as Google Inc offers deeper access to the underlying figures for users' Web searches, giving some insight into trends based on the relative popularity of various words.

The Internet search leader is expanding its existing Google Trends service to allow users to see underlying numerical data on the popularity of any particular search in Google's vast database of search terms, relative to others.

Google Trends was begun two years ago as an entertaining but limited way to indicate what the world is thinking about over time, at least in terms of Web searches.

Now Google is giving users the ability to search across terms in its database, instantly chart how they compare to other search terms, then export the underlying numerical data into a common spreadsheet format to compare with other data.

Google Trends (http://trends.google.com/) lets users compare demand for various search terms and see how popularity differs across geographic regions, cities or languages.

A year ago, the company introduced Hot Trends, which gave users insight into fast-rising Web search trends with data refreshed several times daily. The tool's power only grows as people conduct more and more of their everyday activities online, with Web search often their primary starting point.

The data in Google Trends stretches back to 2004. While the service is based on the many billions of individual searches performed each year, Google Trends only reveals data on the aggregate numbers of searches, not the searches themselves.

National differences in the endless human search for sex or love can vary widely, according to a Google Trends chart. http://tinyurl.com/5jt5ce/

Google Trends users can also chart the explosion of interest in the term "backdating" since 2006, reflecting the scandal over how hundreds of companies backdated options for executives. http://tinyurl.com/5l8osu/

Searches for the word "Microsoft" had a more than two-to-one-lead in searches over "Apple" three years ago, but Apple had virtually closed the gap by the end of 2007.

Then news reports of its takeover bid for Yahoo appears to have stoked a recovery in Microsoft this year. Searches for Microsoft have outnumbered those for Apple by about 7 to 5 in recent weeks, according to Google Trends data.

Users must be registered and signed into a Google account to use the service. One can then see the evolution of new terms or concepts through Google searches, including the rise of "Google Trends" itself. http://tinyurl.com/6zd6pg/.

(Editing by Braden Reddall)

Parents call on Confucius for exam good fortune

The Temple of Confucius in the center of Shanghai's old town was unusually full Wednesday morning.

Crowds of people, most of them in their 40s and 50s, burned incense, lit candles and prayed in and around Dacheng Hall where there is a sculpture of Confucius and also where national exams were held during the times of the imperial dynasties.

The good luck notes they hung on the trellises and trees outside the hall gave away their reasons for being there. Most read something like, "Dear Confucius, please help my son/daughter in the college entrance exam".

With the national examinations starting on Saturday, a growing number of parents have turned to Confucius, as a way to ease the pressure.

A cleaner at the temple, surnamed Xu, told China Daily that local people hardly ever visit the temple, but in the past week, hundreds of them had been.

"There are so many visitors coming these days, all the oil and incense burners keep filling up and I have to empty them several times a day," Xu said.

Visitors pay 12 yuan ($1.75) for a piece of notepaper, incense sticks, two candles and a length of red ribbon.

At the Temple of Confucius in Beijing, visitors have to pay 188 yuan for a wooden tablet on which to write their wishes, although the shelf on which these are then placed is now full, the Beijing Youth Daily reported Wednesday.

One of the visitors at the Shanghai temple Wednesday was 47-year-old Ye Qing. She said she was making a wish for her son who is hoping to study telecommunication engineering at East China Normal University.

"It will work if I am sincere enough," she said.

About 100,000 Shanghai students will sit the college entrance exam between Saturday and Monday, and their parents are doubtless all hoping for the same good fortune.

Many, like Ye, have booked hotel rooms close to the test venues.

Staff at several hotels in the city's Minhang district said they have been taking bookings since the beginning of last month, and many are now full, the Xinmin Evening News reported.

Sun Yu, a teacher at the Shanghai Foreign Language School, said parents are prepared to do whatever they can to help their children succeed, including enrolling them in expensive, extracurricular classes.

High school student Vicky Yang said all her classmates spend at least 500 yuan a month on exam-related books and extra lessons.

"Some pay up to 20,000 yuan a semester for classes that promise to help students secure a university place," she said.

Apart from books and classes, parents also buy their children special tonics to drink, Yang said.

"If you collected up all the empty bottles of tonic my classmates have drunk, you could make a small hill."

World Economic Forum on Africa kicks off in Cape Town

The 18th World Economic Forum on Africa kicked off in Cape Town, South Africa on Wednesday under the theme of "Capitalizing on Opportunity."

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of World Economic Forum, said in the opening ceremony that Africa needs partnership.

Some key issues and key risks and challenges that Africa is facing would be addressed at the meeting.

John Kufuor, president of Ghana, Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa, Bingu Wa Mutharika, president of Malawi, Pierre Nkurunziza, president of Burundi and Raila Odinga, prime Minister of Kenya were present at the opening ceremony.

The leaders expressed optimism about Africa's future. Kufuor said that the opportunity for Africa was immense, and, with time and good coordination, the Africans could make it a powerful entity.

This opinion was agreed by President Nkurunziza, who said Africa was a rich continent and it had no right to be poor.

Africa has seen annul economic growth of more than 5 percent for four consecutive years. In the year of 2008, the growth rate in sub-Saharan Africa is expected at 6.2 percent.

However, the continent also faces many challenges. President Mbeki pointed out that the instability was the major risk that impacts Africa negatively.

In a report dubbed "Africa@ risk" released before the forum, the experts of Global Risk Network said Africa was facing 26 interconnected global risks, of them, four have been identified as being critical for Africa's future.

They are food insecurity, political instability, external economic shocks and climate change. More than 800 decision-makers, experts and entrepreneurs from 50 countries participate in this forum which will last to June 6.

The first one to be stressed is food insecurity which has emerged as a major risk for Africa. High and rising food prices impact disproportionately on poorer communities, high dependence on food imports and food aids lead potentially to social unrest.

Another negative factor is political instability. Eight out of the 10 most vulnerable and weak states are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Political instability, institutional incapacity and social unrest inhibit foreign capital inflows and lower investment appetites, negatively affecting economic opportunities.

Meanwhile, Africa is vulnerable to economic shocks. Any pronounced slowdown in world growth would affect African exports of agricultural products, minerals and hydrocarbons. Africa's dependence on natural resource exports has made many countries vulnerable to commodity price shocks that are outside their control. Sudden increases in export revenues or import costs can cause currency instability and budget uncertainty.

In the medium term, growing income inequalities might generate social unrest and violent conflicts.

The wealthiest decile of the population across the continent still controls between 30 to 60 percent of total income.

Many African countries appear in the lowest positions of the United Nations' Human Poverty Index.

Africa contributes least to global climate change, with only 5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is the most vulnerable region to the expected negative effects.

In other regions there is still a sense that the consequences of climate change lie in the future, in Africa it's being felt now.

The impacts on the continent include greater frequency and severity of extreme weather events, raising the threat of further food and water insecurity and more poverty, disease and population displacement.

These impacts are idiosyncratic: there will be local winners and losers. At the same time, opportunities will be created by the need for new investments.

These four threats to Africa's future are not isolated risks. Their drivers, triggers and potential consequences are highly interconnected. They will all be addressed in the meeting.

Since the forum started many years ago, the participants had made some progress to help Africa, said E. Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive officer of Coca-Cola here on the same day.

"People come together to bring about the solutions to engage the triangle of government, society and business, make them work effectively," he said.