European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

Google search trends

by das monde
Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 01:52:43 AM EST

Let's catch a wave of blogosphere interest in the Google feature that allows to track and compare frequency of various keywords in Google searches. The particular graph that is being keenly copied is the comparison of the searches for "turkey" and "diet":

So, American people look for "turkey" at around this time, and then again (a smaller peak) for Christmas, and after the New Year party they look for "diet". You can graphically appreciate the inevitability. Searches for hangover peak sharply at around New Year as well, surely enough.

You can play a lot with word combinations. Following blog links, you can find
Pokemon vs US presidential candidates,
depression vs rain & umbrella,
love vs sex,
fishing vs hunting,
snow vs fireworks,
four seasons comparisons.

Google search trends can gauge people interest in various issues, can't they? So let's try the subjects that interest us most.

The interest in globalization and capitalism is very seasonal:

Clearly, summer and Christmas holidays must be reducing scholarly interest a lot.

This is confirmed by the climate and global warming graph:

Oh yeah, let's compare terrorism and global warming worries, which is a more genuine concern?

Sustainability and peak oil (B+R) are somewhat lesser concerns:

Also check the air travel vs oil price superposition.

Is financial crisis coming? Check real estate, financial, market, and Black Friday (BRYG):

What can you find? Did you know that Americans are fascinated by France? Find something more remarkable than
google vs yahoo,
oil vs gold,
euro vs dollar,
Netherlands vs Holland
comparisons?

Sorry if I'll spoil your day or weekend ;-)

. Home
. About
. Contact
. New User Guide
. FAQ
. ET Editorial Guidelines
. Search
. Search (Google)

Username:
Password:

. Make a new account
. Reset password

Google search trends | 31 comments (31 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

LOL!

Love peaks around Valentine's day, and sex peaks over the Chrismas holiday period.

Terrorism peaked around the Madrid bombing, the London bombings, and what happened in 2006?

Check out the huge dips in interest in "sustainability" around the Christmas season, too!

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 05:05:56 AM EST

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

The 2006 terrorism line is pretty within the long term trend combined with the 9/11 reminder.

The peak of Christmas excitement is diminishing, and... getting over by Christmas?

This row of events is instructive. (Janet refers to Janet Jackson and NFL's "Nippelgate").

Can someone remember what happened to Earth by the turn of 2005? Who lied a lot in spring 2006?

Oscillations of fishing and hunting compliment each other beautifully.

by das monde on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 07:15:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

The "earth" jump coincides with the "make poverty history" blip.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 07:28:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

Nomad will be outraged! But Jérôme will be less happy if one uses other search terms:

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 06:12:41 AM EST

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

Light blue: UK, dark blue: France, green: England, other two: United Kingdom and Britain.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 06:13:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

What is that search for?

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 06:20:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

Reclist junkie...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 06:31:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]

No rage (4.00 / 2)

I'm aware what epic battle I've taken upon my shoulders.

What Hercules achieved is peanuts in comparison.

by Nomad on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 07:35:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (4.00 / 2)

Communism vs capitalism (red resp. blue):

Car (blue) vs. train (red)...

Yankees (blue) vs Arsenal (red):

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 06:27:28 AM EST

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

As you brought football into the equation, I just tried England vs. Croatia. Now there's a game the English actually win.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 06:40:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (4.00 / 2)

Wind power (blue) vs. nuclear power (red):

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 06:44:12 AM EST

Re: Google search trends (4.00 / 2)

Political blog comparison: National Review against Daily Kos:

by das monde on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 07:22:32 AM EST

Democrat v. Republican (none / 1)

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 07:24:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Reality has a liberal bias (4.00 / 2)

What liberal media?

liberal (blue), conservative (red).

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 07:26:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

torture vs Terrorism (4.00 / 2)

torture blue, terrorism red

so people are far more worried about torture than terrorism? and George Bushes announcement that the US does not torture [a], has just magnified that trend.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 08:26:37 AM EST

Re: Google search trends (4.00 / 2)

Google trends lack an absolute number for scales, which makes comparing across searches pretty difficult. Therefore when I use it I always put in a "calibration" keyword. When searching for trends on mainstream events, "sex" or "porn" are good ones. But when searching on Peak Oil or other doom topics, they dwarf the signal (depressing huh ?).

Pierre

by Pierre on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 08:33:59 AM EST

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

Searching Google for sex must be the very definition of futility in most parts of the world.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Nov 22nd, 2007 at 01:23:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

Where do you put calibration, how?

Check apples and oranges,
apple and microsoft,
gym and yoga,
success vs failure,
and colors.

by das monde on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 12:45:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

oh, it's simply one extra keyword, unrelated to any topic I search, but that will be present on all graphs, so I can compare the other curves (it replaces the missing vertical scale labels - probably google doesn't want to disclose absolute numbers because it would say too much about it's processing volumes)

Pierre

by Pierre on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 05:32:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

More like apple vs. orange, too (orange being a French mobile phone operator: check out the load from France)

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 10:47:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

Ok, here are then apples and oranges literally :-)

by das monde on Sun Nov 25th, 2007 at 10:08:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (4.00 / 2)

We complain a lot that the media is shallow. But people, really, are a lot more shallow.

See the mother of all searches.

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 11:08:02 AM EST

Re: Google search trends (4.00 / 2)

On the other hand, if people's interest could power us...

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 11:44:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (4.00 / 4)

in the long term, I'm quite convinced that Brittany and Paris are a bigger threat to civilisation than Osama.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 12:03:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (4.00 / 3)

<sigh> More French-bashing from the other side of the Channel...

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 12:16:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 1)

Wewll it's not like we hold a grudge, But they did shoot our king in the eye ;-)

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 12:25:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (none / 0)

William still beats Harold :-)

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 01:12:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Google search trends (4.00 / 2)

In actual fact that's not quite the mother of all searches

This Is

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Nov 23rd, 2007 at 12:12:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

is this evidence (4.00 / 2)

That oil companies have reached "Peak Web"? while windpower is still growing?

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.