Sigvald's Google poll

[Martin Olsen]

Sigvald wrote:

> Anyway instead of arguing in favour of, or against the value of the nice
> Polish web-poll I have done my own *scientific* popularity check by using
> Google to search for the name of various well-known Disney creators/artists.
> The search was done with the full name of the artists within quote-marks
> like this: "Carl Barks". Here are the results:
> 
> Rank  Artist     Google-hits   %
> ---------------------------------------
> 1    Carl Barks        25100  (41,1%)
> 2    Don Rosa          12600  (20,6%)
> 3    Vicar*             6850  (11,2%)
> 4    David Gerstein     2790  ( 4,6%)
> 5    Floyd Gottfredson  2280  ( 3,7%)
> 6    Marco Rota         2200  ( 3,6%)
> 7    Romano Scarpa      2080  ( 3,4%)
> 8    William van Horn   1880  ( 3,1%)
> 9    Al Taliaferro      1280  ( 2,1%)
> 10    Olaf Solstrand     1140  ( 1,9%)
> 11    Paul Murry         1110  ( 1,8%)
> 12    Tony Strobl         947  ( 1,6%)
> 13    Freddy Milton       676  ( 1,1%)
> 14    Dan Jippes          106  ( 0,2%)
> ---------------------------------------
> * As Vicar is a very normal word I had to search for "Vicar" + Disney
> 
> Hope this is clarifying when it comes to the ranking-matter.
> 

I was a bit baffled at #14, particularly the spelling, so I have just Googled "Daan Jippes", and I got approximately 1790 hits. So, with the correct spelling, Daan Jippes gets 9th place, thus pushing Olaf Solstrand out of the top ten (sorry Olaf).

Also, Freddy Milton is known in the US by the name Fred Milton. I have Googled "Fred Milton" and got 640 hits, while "Freddy Milton" got 689 hits. There may be some doubles, but I believe Freddy's total score should be somewhere between 689 and 1329.

These simple observations may serve as one indication why such a simple poll is not considered by all to carry much weight. 

Another observation is that some artists do not appear on the list, simply because they have been omitted from the poll. I don't claim that you have done so deliberately, Sigvald, I just assume that you have picked the names that sprang to your mind. To my mind sprang one obvious omission from your list, so I Googled "Giorgio Cavazzano" and got 2350 hits. "Luciano Gatto" got 1880 hits, and "Luciano Bottaro" got 875. 
I could go on and on, and I probably would, had I thought of a Google poll as having any significance at all.

Martin.