Hops and Chops tonight @ Linda’s Tavern

Tonight is the 3rd installment of the happy hour we’ve been sponsoring with TeachStreet CEO Dave Schappell, TeachStreet developer Daryn Nakhuda, Todd Sawicki and NewsRadio 750 KXL “Tech Expert” host Brian Westbrook. We welcome all startup junkies, networkers and anyone interested in learning new things and meeting new people!

As always, the first pitcher of PBR courtesy of Foundry Interactive.

• Where? - Linda’s Tavern (Capitol Hill) - 707 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122
• When? - 6:30pm, every Thursday

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2008 VP Debate (key)word analysis

Among our services we offer are website, SEO and SEM keyword analysis.  Typically the analysis would entail reasearching, organizing and quantifying the current, related, and competetive content of a website.  Once we’ve gotten the core set of keywords we can begin to quantify the importance and relevance of your keywords and then build a strategy which will drive more traffic to your website.  Each client has different goals and different needs.  From brand awareness, to segmentation, to web traffic analytics Foundry can help with your keyword analysis.  We can help you make informed decisions about your website, or we can halpe you make other informed decisions…

Today, there’s a bit of a priority in America for electing our next president, and vice president.  This evening a few of us got together to watch the debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.  I know what you’re thinking… where’s the keyword analysis?  Well, as the debate was wrapping up, I heard a plethora of “mavericks”.  I then though, it would be nice to do a bit of a keyword analysis on our candidates.  I was most interested in aggregate word counts and overall vocabularies.

I started by looking at the most popular words between both candidates.  I know “bailout” sure wasn’t in there.  But hey, why get into current and future issues when you can talk about the past.  Anyway, back to the most popular words.

Most popular words in Biden-Palin VP debate

Biden really likes “the”, but generally Palin prefers the small words.  She’s number one for a, and, that, to, in, of.  But Biden comes right back in number one for the loaded word “I”.  Did you know Italians hardly ever even say “I”?  On the other side of the coin, Palin liked to use we, you, and our more, showing that she indeed may be thinking a bit more about us, the average americans.  Or she might just be talking more.  As a matter of fact, she spoke 10% more words than Biden in the debate.  Roughly 7,700 for Palin compared to 7,000 for Biden.

Next I wanted to look at the length of the candidate’s words.  

VP Debate Word Length Distribution for Palin and Biden

Generally, I think results get diluted in a debate format because candidates tend to use and refute each other’s words.   Other than 6 letter words (Barack Obama), Biden tended to use less words across the board.  Two, and three letter words were most popular, and in these hard times, it wasn’t surprising to see four letter words as the most common words throughout the debate.

I have yet to really come to any great generalizations or conclusions distinguishing the candidates.  So I decide to select some of the more significant words and see how each candidate stacked up.

Selected Word Counts During 2008 VP Debate

I think things get a little interesting here.  Palin likes taxes, while Biden likes tax.  Bucking the alleged bias of the national media, both candidates seem much more interested in McCain than Obama.  Palin likes energy, while Biden likes policy and change.  No big surprises there.

The real surprise for me was the counts for Afghanistan and America.  Palin actually said Afghanistan more than America (16-15), and Biden wasn’t much better (12-13).  I suppose I’d like to know that the candidates are thinking about facing our domestic challenges before venturing around the globe, but it seems like they are just playing a mutual game of beat around the bush.

Why Foundry?

One of the great things about working at a startup is the opportunity for learning.  We’ve learned that when you start a company you’ve got to name it and then tell other people about it, and then you must be prepared to explain why you have decided on the name.  Explanations such as “it was a six letter url” or “I saw it somewhere and thought it sounded cool” are apparently not as compelling as something which reflects some degree of thought and creativity.

So, for those of you wondering “why Foundry Interactive?” please allow me to explain.  A foundry is a factory which makes castings of metal components.  we found the image of a foundry to be particular evocative of what we do.  At Foundry Interactive, we build applications and solutions which will become critical components of other businesses.  We build them with considerable care so they perform well. 

A foundry is a place where technology meets a great deal of hard work.  It is also where you turn when you are serious about getting the best components possible.  A foundry’s finished product can be more complex and durable because of the exacting process with which they are made and the experience of the builders.  To a group of journeymen technologists and marketers that sounded pretty good.  Plus, all the good six letter urls were taken.