Wordle

Wordle is a tool you can use to make word clouds for any text you enter (copy and paste, or type). Words that are used more frequently in the text will appear in a larger size. The word cloud will appear with a random color scheme and font, which you can tweak along with the layout.

ReadWriteWeb had a recent post comparing Wordles of Obama’s inaugural address to those of other presidents. I thought it wasn’t really fair to compare Obama’s to Bush’s 2005, post 9/11 address as ReadWriteWeb did, so I did a Wordle of Bush’s 2001 address instead:


And here’s Obama’s:

While Wordle is a lot of fun, it is also a visual way to view and analyze text. Wordle instantly reveals the central points--or overused words--in a document. Try it with your own writings!

[Thanks to Tracy for the idea for this post!]