What started as a Carleton student’s way to practice coding has become an explosively popular application to track swearing on social media.
Third-year computer science student Martin Gingras created FBomb.co, an online app that lets people see exactly where and when Twitter users are dropping f-bombs all around the globe.
Each time a user tweets the word “fuck,” an animated explosion appears on the map, followed by an interactive pin that allows viewers to see what the tweet in question says.
The app, which went live Oct. 21, works by using tweets with locations attached, whether it’s through the optional location add-on or if the tweet mentions a specific city or place.
A new subdomain went live Nov. 11, called Shtstorm, where users can track the word “shit” as well.
Even though viewers can now track two swear words, Gingras said he chose to track the word “fuck” first instead of numerous others due to the sheer power of the word.
“The f-word is probably one of the biggest, most impactful swear words you can pick. If someone said, ‘oh fuck,’ there’s so much more impact than ‘oh shit,’” he said.
Gingras explained on his website that the inspiration came from the more negative side of social media and how people “misuse and abuse the English language.”
“The way I was looking at it was the context a lot of people on Twitter seem to use it in. It doesn’t seem very appropriately used,” he said.
He said he started working on the app Oct. 19 and after two days, and two rewrites of the code, he had it running.
Gingras mentioned that he doesn’t keep track of statistical data, but he said a recent article about his app stated that the United States and the U.K. are the most foulmouthed, while the word usage is more rare in Canada and Australia.
His work has garnered international attention, being written about by the New York Post and the LA Times. Gingras said he’s still amazed by the response.
“I was really surprised about how widespread it got. I definitely never expected it to take off the way it did,” he said.
Gingras said the average time a user stays on the app has increased to a minute and a half from 30 seconds.
Fans of the f-bomb app will be happy to know that a new app is in the works that will let the user pick the words they want to track.
According to Gingras, the new app will be more user-friendly and go beyond animated explosions to be “more polished, a bit more professional.”
The inspiration came from multiple emails he received asking for this feature, he said.
Currently, Gingras is facing logistical problems revolving around Twitter limiting how many separate streams—the customized searches for tracking tweets—an individual can subscribe to.
Once those issues are fixed, he estimates that the new app will be completed sometime in late December 2013 or early January 2014.
Reporter Cassie Hendry headed to the Unicentre atrium to find out whether Carleton students swear on social media, and why.
