So, even though Google Trends has been out for quite awhile, what with coming back from Africa and doing other college preparation things, I never got a chance to check it out. It’s been fun, and I’d encourage you all to check it out to find interesting patterns in our daily global lives.
For the most part, almost every trend I’ve looked at has decreased over time. Probably just an effect of people not really needing to google every possible thing. Perhaps more information has spread out into the world amongst the people and so there is less of a need to google it. Or it could mean that people are relying less on Google in general. Some things, like Facebook and Twitter, skyrocket over time. Funny that googling google has steadily increased – maybe because of the rumor that it would break the internet? Haha. But, other than just generics, here are some interesting things I found on Google Trends. Search for more!
- Searching of neurons seems highly correlated with terms at schools and universities. This activity pattern in general seems amusing to me. “Neurons” are being activated (on google) when learning is being done. Hehe.
- Searching of gre is cyclical throughout the years, having more interest as time approaches the graduate school application process.
- UCSD, presumably because it is in La Jolla, generates the most google searches for cognitive science. Not sure why Koreans are so incredibly interested, but I’m sure I’ll find out in the next few years.
- People are relying less on google to find out about the U.S. World and News Report for college rankings, although there are still spikes for when new rankings are released.
- People in the Philippines are more concerned about graduate school than Americans, well at least on Google.
- Lots of people in Poland want to find out about the name Karnowski (or one of their infamous politicians), so perhaps it’s true that most Karnowskis are in Poland.
- Surfing is a hot topic in Honolulu, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, and San Diego
- People seem to only wonder more about Africa during its recent world cup hosting… wait, the only people really wondering about it are people already in South Africa!
- People still remember 9-11 on 9-11 by googling it.
- People care WAY more about Christmas than they do New Year’s, Easter, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving.
- People really wanted to know about robots in February and March of 2005. You know why?! A movie called Robots came out on March 11, 2005. Here, you thought people cared about real robotics. Nope.
- Searches about Alaska are highly correlated with searches about Sarah Palin.
- Searches about Scientology are highly correlated with searches about Tom Cruise.
People can find all types of things. Here is another blog entry to someone else’s findings:
25 Things I Learned on Google Trends
Comment on my post about other crazy things you’ve found on Google Trends!
