Here's a new type of post, "webtips", featuring interesting web apps and tech tricks, as this site continues its identity crisis [food blog? political commentary? travel journal?]. No doubt many of them will be Google related, but let's start with one that isn't:
Platform: Internet browser
URL: www.wordle.net
URL: www.wordle.net
Where/how I came across it: Among the great stuff shared in the artsci forum.
What it does: It takes text, either copy/pasted or from a site's url/feed, and generates a word cloud of the most used words, with plenty of customization options.
This link is apparently nothing new, since it was first shared on the forum in late 2008, but I discovered it about two months ago. It was soon bookmarked, and I finally used it in a recent post, wrapping up a series of notes on the 2011 Canadian Federal Election. The tool itself is very, very easy to use: simply input your text, or paste a site's url, and press Go/submit.
The site uses Java to generate its word clouds, and then you will be able to customize the font, colour, and layout of the words, while removing common words as desired. You can also randomize the settings - and the nice thing is that most of them turn out pretty well.
Try it out, it's lots of fun. Below is a word cloud of this very post:
This link is apparently nothing new, since it was first shared on the forum in late 2008, but I discovered it about two months ago. It was soon bookmarked, and I finally used it in a recent post, wrapping up a series of notes on the 2011 Canadian Federal Election. The tool itself is very, very easy to use: simply input your text, or paste a site's url, and press Go/submit.
The site uses Java to generate its word clouds, and then you will be able to customize the font, colour, and layout of the words, while removing common words as desired. You can also randomize the settings - and the nice thing is that most of them turn out pretty well.
Try it out, it's lots of fun. Below is a word cloud of this very post:
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