Following Idea Development
Continuing with themes presented in the previous post “Natural Selection for Ideas”…Following the development of information strands is time consuming and data intensive. Fortunately, services are arising to simplify the tracking process for specific threads of information.
Google Labs maintains an experimental GoogleTrends feature, which displays search popularity beginning with 2004 queries. Google Trends provides ephemeral SEO data such as recognizing “who dey” as the predominant search query immediately following Monday night’s Bengals v. Ravens NFL game. The tool works for long term exploration of Web 2.0 creations as well - notice the popularity differences between blogging and podcasting since 2004 via the graph below (blogging=blue and podcasting=red).
The lower portion of the data displays news references, suggesting a peak interest in mid-2005. The peaks in both news coverage and search coincide, showing the correlation between media coverage and widespread curiousity (and subsequently adoption in this case). GoogleTrends also clusters web activity by region, with Singapore and San Francisco leading searches for both blogging and podcasting. [Note to fellow Chicagoans: We have not cracked the top ten. Start typing and recording!]
By regularly following GoogleTrends, patterns arise surrounding seasonal searches and cultural events (i.e. tax returns in April, Christmas in December, and vacations throughout the summer). The validity of GoogleTrends is questionable…according to Wikipedia. After spending time on wikiscanner, however, I do not doubt the criticism could be a Microsoft or Yahoo marketing tactic.
Filed under: Infonalysis