Technology

You may know what your social media network thinks about certain subjects, but have you ever thought to yourself that what's really missing is an easy way to gauge the collective opinion of the Internet at large? Boy, I can't count the times I've been sitting around wondering what the entire Internet thinks about cilantro. PRO OR CON, INTERNET?

Thankfully, now I can find out with just a few clicks, thanks to a website titled, appropriately enough, What Does the Internet Think? At WDTIT, you can enter in anything you're curious about, from celebrities to TV shows to random subjects like ballpoint pens, and the site tells you if the overall opinion is positive, negative, or indifferent.

(FYI: it seems the Internet is currently very positive about cilantro. Suck on that, haters! It does not taste like soap!)

So, how does it work? Well, the site's explanation is a bit vague:

We don’t want to disclose too much of the ‘algorithm’ (it's not all that high-tech) of the site. However ... basically it searches based on associative (English!) sentences. The given search term is used in these sentences which are then sent off to the search engine, counting the amount of results returned. (Sentences are double quoted before they are sent off, so as to make sure the search engines search for occurrences of the *whole* sentence).

Hmmmm, clear as mud. At any rate, the site appears to mash together results from Bing and Twitter, so it's probably not exactly the most accurate thing in the world, and results will surely vary quite a bit depending on when you search.

Still, it's pretty entertaining. For instance, the Internet is currently pretty negative about Kim Kardashian:

But man oh man, is the Internet ever into sloths! (Thanks, Kristen Bell!)

The Internet's not too sure about President Obama ...

But nearly united in its collective love for Ryan Gosling! (Is it any surprise?)

Armpits are mostly disliked by the Internet:

But as for me, well, the Internet just can't decide what to think.

I'm not saying you should toss out your complete Encyclopedia Britannica set in order to conduct all your future research on What Does the Internet Think?, but it's definitely a fun little time-waster. Who knew that the Internet was by and large a fan of head cheese? (88 percent positive!)

Have you used this site before? Did you get any interesting results on it?

Images via What Does the Internet Think?