Global Language Monitor

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2003 by Paul J.J. Payack, the GLM describes its role as "a media analytics company that documents, analyzes and tracks cultural trends in language the world over, with a particular emphasis upon Global English". GLM's main services include various products based on the Narrative Tracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 275,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.[8] In April 2008, GLM moved its headquarters from San Diego to Austin.[9]

GLM announced "Emoji" as its Top Word of 2014 for Global English along with its complete lists of Top Words, Phrases and Names in December 2014.[10]

Earlier in 2015 GLM has released:

• The Top Words of the First Fifteen Years of the 21st Century (and what they portend).[11]
• The Top Words of 2115 (One hundred Years Hence)[12]
• The AD 2076 Map of the Re-federalised United States (including VanCity and Scot's Land).[13]
• The Top Trending Words of 2015 at Mid-Year [14]

GLM announced the 1,000,000th English word on June 10, 2009.[15] This controversial exercise was widely covered in the global media.[16][17] The count itself was widely criticized by a number of prominent linguists, including Geoffrey Nunberg,[18] and Jesse Sheidlower[19] and Benjamin Zimmer,[20] on the grounds that since there is no generally accepted definition of a word, there can never be a definitive count.[19][20][21]

The finalists, which met the criteria of a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution and depth of citations, were:

1. Web 2.0. 2. Jai Ho! 3. N00b. 4. Slumdog. 5. Cloud computing. 6. Carbon Neutral. 7. Slow Food. 8. Octomom. 9. Greenwashing. 10. Sexting. 11. Shovel ready. 12. Defriend. 13. Chengguan. 14. Recessionista. 15. Zombie Banks.[22]

Critics noted that the target date had been changed a number of times from late in 2006 to early in 2009.[23][24][25][26][27][28] It was also criticized on grounds that a count is impossible because "word" is not a scientifically valid concept. Google addressed this situation by counting the words in the 15 million scanned texts in their corpus.[29] Global Language Monitor states the general criteria for inclusion on its site, maintaining that it is simply updating the established criteria for printed dictionaries beginning with the works of Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster.[30]

The New York Times quoted Paul JJ Payack as saying that the PQI is "an algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet in relation to frequency, context and appearance in global media. It is a weighted index that takes into account year-to-year increases and acceleration in the last several months".[31] In general terms, GLM describes its Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), used to run its analytics on global language trends and, as a weighted index, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity, using frequency data on words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, and throughout the blogosphere, as well as in proprietary databases (Factiva, Lexis-Nexis, etc.). It can also create "signals" that can be used in a variety of applications.[32]

On 20 February 2008 GLM announced that the latest word to enter the English language was "obama", derived from Barack Obama, in its many variations. GLM described Obama- as a "root" for words including obamanomics, obamican, obamamentum, obamacize, obamarama, obamaNation, Obamafy, obamamania and obamacam.[33] GLM announced it to be an accepted word, once it met the group's published criteria: a minimum of 25,000 citations in the global media, as well as achieving the necessary 'breadth' and 'depth' of citations.[34]

The Global Language Monitor publishes other lists relating to the English language including: the TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide rankings of the top 425 U.S. colleges and universities according to their internet brand equity.[35]

Top Universities (January 2016): Rank/University/Previous Ranking

Top Universities Last

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1
2. University of California at Los Angeles 6
3. University of California, Berkeley 3
4. University of California, Davis 7
5. University of California, San Diego 12
6. University of Chicago 4
7. University of Texas, Austin 5
8. Harvard University 2
9. University of Washington 13
10. University of Southern California 27
11. Stanford University 8
12. University of Wisconsin, Madison 15
13. Yale University 21
14. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 16
15. University of California, Irvine 37
16. University of Virginia 19
17. University of California, Santa Barbara 36
18. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 20
19. University of Minnesota 22
20. Ohio State University, Columbus 28
21. Columbia University 14
22. Princeton University 17
23. University of Pennsylvania 11
24. Duke University 61
25. University of California, Santa Cruz 84
26. New York University 9
27. Emory University 33
28. Michigan State University 24
29. Cornell University 23
30. Johns Hopkins University 30
31. Northwestern University 10
32. University of Florida 67
33. Florida State 48
34. University of Missouri, Columbia 51
35. Virginia Tech 65
36. University of Arizona 77
37. University of Iowa 44
38. Georgia Institute of Technology 26
39. Washington University in St. Louis 25
40. Indiana University, Bloomington 32
41. University of Miami 46
42. Washington State University 79
43. University of Pittsburgh 45
44. University of San Diego 149
45. University of Oregon 49
46. American University 58
47. University of Phoenix 98
48. Purdue University 31
49. Iowa State University 47
50. University of Georgia 43
51. University of Tennessee 90

• Official Site