Sunday, January 23, 2011

When Horoscopes and Data Geeks Collide...

Ever wonder how the horoscope gurus of every astrology website or your favorite alternative weekly gets their grains of wisdom to produce your horoscope? Does it ever seem like the horoscope you get is repetitive, dull, or not-quite-spot-on?

Well, thanks to the folks at Information is Beautiful, there is now a graphic continuum of the most commonly used words in a sample of over 22,000 horoscopes, filtered by astrological sign.

For my fellow Pisces, here are the most common words:

  • better
  • life
  • feel 
  • happy
  • change
  • matter
  • sure
  • keep
  • emotional
  • energy
  • decision
  • moment
And here's a generic horoscope that could apply to anyone, any sign, at any time of the year, using this same data mining technology:



Here are some of the unique words mentioned for each horoscope across the range of data the researchers at Information is Beautiful catalogued:


Finally, the full range of horoscope traits they found:


Does this fit with your ideas of astrology? Leave a comment and let's hear your take :)

Via: Gearfuse

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