Google Labs’ Ngram Viewer lets us look at the use of phrases over time. For example, my name, Ezra, appears to have been most popular usage peaks back in the 1600s and 1700s, but has been more consistently used since the 1800s. This kind of thing can get me lost for hours at a time. Ezra+Persia+Cyrus

Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel have some more interesting lessons learned.

If the below video does not work, then try What we learned from 5 million books.

I found this on a blog post where a TED intern picked her favorite TED Talks.