Google: Giving Perspective Since 1998

     I cannot wait to dive into searching using the "site:" function.  It's just completely changed how I think about information. Looking at the same piece of information, the same historical event, the same piece of literature through different lenses, the possibilities are endless. I love the idea of kids looking at an historical event through the eyes of a student in another state or country. America is so ethnocentric yet we exist in an ever increasingly global reality. Students need to realize that neither the US, nor their home state, is the center of the universe and what a simple way to start them on that realization.

     I've been interested in Cambodia since visiting there a few years ago. I had a friend who lived there and she mentioned that there is lingering anti-Vietnamese sentiment in the country. Granted, I have not done extensive research into the history, but after learning about this site search function today, I tried a little experiment. I put the words "Pol Pot" into a Google search. He was the communist dictator who rose to power in Cambodia in the '70's and enacted a terrible reign of terror in the country. I got some very different results, though, depending on whether I used "site:VN" for Vietnam or "site:KH" for Cambodia. Here is what I found:

https://www.google.com/search?q=pol+pot+site:vn&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwix7sLPpLjjAhWHr1QKHQzBAwEQ_AUICygA&biw=1335&bih=615&dpr=1

Versus

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1335&bih=615&ei=8RwtXer5IdSv0PEP4qqruA0&q=+pol+pot+site%3Akh&oq=+pol+pot+site%3Akh&gs_l=psy-ab.3...19203.20507..21223...0.0..0.64.186.3......0....1..gws-wiz.QC4IkxVfocQ

First of all, about 138,000 results came up from the Vietnamese search and only 6,080 from the exact same search done respective to Cambodia. I don't have an exact reason for that discrepancy, but perhaps the history itself is so painful for Cambodians that is it not revisited? Vietnam focuses its articles on itself, how that period of time relates to Vietnam and how Vietnam was a great savior. Whereas Cambodia relates the information to the affects on its people. 

Just in this one search, I have come up with many more questions I could investigate. I can see this being a very effective tool, if used properly, to help students see the many varied ways people can approach one event or idea. Fascinating stuff!!