BU ranks 22nd among schools with most Sporcle use

If Sporcle.com posted a quiz asking which schools use the site most, Boston University would be one of its answers.

For the week of Feb. 20-26, BU ranked 22nd. Other schools in the top 25 include New York University, Georgia Tech, Boston College, University of Maryland and University of Michigan, the No. 1 school on the list.

The ranking is determined by a number of factors, including the number of page views, the number of games played and the average time spent on the site.

“The college crowd is definitely a big art of the audience we’re targeting,” said Vice President of Products at Sporcle, Derek Pharr. “Colleges have this rich history of rivalries that play out on different stages.”

After registering as a university student, users can create, play and rate games, Pharr said.

Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences freshman Elias Fraija said he is not surprised that BU is in the top 25.

“It’s a good distraction, you know, and it’s fun and really a lot more interesting than homework like 98 percent of the time,” he said. “Even though we’re a studious bunch here at BU, I can tell that there’s a bunch of us on Sporcle during class.”

College of Arts and Sciences freshman Jen Cruz said she uses Sporcle when she is either really bored or in the middle of writing a paper.

“It’s fun and you can test yourself on random bits of information, like countries of the world. It surprises you how much you know,” Cruz said.

Although she admits it’s a distraction, Cruz said she thinks people probably do not feel as bad spending time on Sporcle as they do using Facebook.

“It’s not just like you’re going through photos and whatnot, but you’re actually taking quizzes and stuff,” Cruz said. “So it kind of makes you feel better about your intelligence.”

Founder Matt Ramme, a trivia fan, launched the site in 2007 after being inspired by The New York Times crossword puzzle and the game show “Jeopardy.”

The site publishes about 10 quizzes every day and just released its 5,000th quiz on Feb. 25, Pharr said. It is expected to reach half a billion plays in March or April.

Sporcle public relations associate Ian Henry said Sporcle also released three new free iPhone applications last week, in addition to its phone apps.

“We had an iPhone app come out in February 2010 and it has been a great product for us,” Henry said in an email. We released an Android app December of 2010 and that is starting to gain some traction.

Sporcle now features more than 160,000 user-created games, including a word scramble and a game that requires players to fill in an empty map of the United States, according to its site.