---
title: Dilbert search statistics
date: "2008-10-10T12:00:00Z"
categories:
  - how-i-do-things
wp_id: 27
description: I indexed two years of Dilbert strips in three weeks by crowdsourcing transcriptions via a Google App Engine tool. This community-driven approach is significantly faster than my previous solo attempts at digitizing comic archives for search.
keywords: [dilbert, crowdsourcing, transcription, google app engine, search engine, wordle]
---

It's been three weeks since I [initiated the effort to type in the Dilbert strips](/blog/dilbert-search-engine/) and the results are encouraging. About 2 years worth of strips [have been typed out](http://dilbert-search.appspot.com/). So this [Dilbert viewer](/dilbert.html) now has a reasonably sized index for searching.

Many thanks are in order here. The first is due to [geek.nl](http://www.geek.nl/), whose [images](http://www.geek.nl/pics/dilbert-arch/) I have taken the liberty of hotlinking. Thanks also to those who've taken the time out to type strips:

- granger95
- bthangaraj
- gdibyo
- adrienbernard
- sundar.ramakrishnan
- pistohl
- waywardone
- balamurugan.cse
- sruppenthal

... and several others.

When I initially planned to share the typing of the Dilbert strips, I anticipated that I would probably type in the most, and almost no one would pitch in. While I still have typed in the most, the contributions of the above have been of great help in more than the obvious way. When I typed out 10 years of [Calvin & Hobbes](/calvin/), it took me 5 years. This is 2 years of Dilbert in 3 weeks. If nothing else, it's pushing me to work harder on this. So thanks again for the motivation.

**Here's my request again to all you Dilbert fans.**

1. Please go to [dilbert-search.appspot.com](http://dilbert-search.appspot.com/)
2. Log in using your Google account and type in as many strips as you like
3. Bookmark it for the future, whenever you're bored

Here's a [Wordle](http://wordle.net/) cloud of all the strips typed out so far (with Dilbert and Pointy Haired Boss removed.)

[![Dilbert](/blog/assets/flickr-dilbert_2929866694_o-png.webp)](/blog/assets/flickr-dilbert_2929866694_o-png.webp "Dilbert word cloud")

(Seeing that there's more "good" than "bad", and more "like" than "dislike" or "hate", you might even call Dilbert an optimistic strip.)

---

## Comments

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- **Dibyo** _21 Oct 2008 8:10 am_:
  You've posted this again? Each time you post this, I do atleast one strip!
- **S Anand** _25 Oct 2008 6:18 am_:
  Hmm... don't know why that happened. I didn't realise it appeared again on\
  Google Reader until yesterday. Maybe I just changed a word or so. Well, all\
  the better :-)\
  Anand
- **Elleana** _25 Oct 2008 11:22 am_:
  How should "Pointy Haired Boss" be capitalized?
- **S Anand** _25 Oct 2008 11:25 am_:
  I'm not sure, Elleana. I use "Pointy haired boss" consistently. I think\
  you've used "Pointy Haired Boss" consistently. Since the search is\
  ultimately case-insensitive, I guess it's OK either way.\
  And thanks for all your effort!\
  \
  Anand
- **ray** _30 Oct 2008 8:06 am_:
  Hi,\
  \
  I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be very good.. u write well.. Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too;\
  \
  BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!\
  \
  This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :)\
  \
  Cheers,

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