Google data in another role.....

As reported in a NY Times article, Google data will play a role in an upcoming obscenity trial in Florida. Obscenity laws typically use "community standards" to define what is obscene. (In library school, we learn about the 3-part "Miller test" for defining obscenity.) In the Florida case, the defense will use publicly available Google search data to argue that since residents of Pensacola, FL are more likely to search for terms such as "orgy" than "apple pie" or "watermelon", then by extension a Web site of sexual material is within the community standards of acceptable behavior.

It's interesting to think of all the varied ways in which search data can be used to identify norms and trends or justify actions......