The question CNN has scoured the internet to determine was, Did the Dixie Chicks win a grammy because of their politics or their music? I was a big fan before the incident and never really got back into their music afterwards. I listened to their new album. It was good, not 5 grammys good, but good. Knowing the political leanings of most of the entertainment industry I know how I would have voted if someone had asked me. But no one asked me. In fact they didn’t actually ask anyone. Thats the thing I find fascinating about this story. They didn’t poll anyone when they came up with their pie charts showing public opinion.

Instead of doing a poll, they searched blog content. Blogs, like this one! They searched for it, parsed it up, dissected our sentence structures, processed it, and counted it to determine that 52% of bloggers had a positive reaction to their win (although that reaction may also have been more political than musical). The technogeek in me thinks ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool’. Its amazing what technology can do. I only wish I had written that code. It truly demonstrates the impact the internet and blogging in particular is having on the world. And yet, at the same time the paranoid voices in my head keep whispering that thats a little scary. Maybe just a bit too Orwellian for my tastes. The fact that Umbria, the company that performs this service for CNN can even determine your age and gender just from the speech (i.e., writing) patterns in your blog freaks me out. Check out the FAQ they posted about Umbria’s technology. And remember when ever you publish something on your blog you never know who is going to read it our how their going to use it.