I thought I might have a little fun with Google’s new Google Trends tool. Basically, it allows you to search for any term, or combination of terms and see what the search and news volume is on it. It could actually be a pretty interesting marketing tool if it gave out some more information.
My test was using the terms, “Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Somalia, Uganda”.
As you can see from the results, Kenya is much more consistently on people’s minds than any other country. Also note, there was a big spike in interest on Sudan in early 2005 (Darfur?).
However, notice that the lower graph shows that Sudan is the country in the news more than any other.
May 15, 2006 at 11:28 am
This was Dave Pollard’s observation of Google Trends http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2006/05/13.html#a1525
Google’s Humbling New Trends Tool: Here in the echo chamber of the blogosphere, we tend to think the memes we originate, pick up on and amplify are getting through to large numbers of people, at least those online. The latest Google tool, Google Trends throws cold water on this conceit. Some of the most popular blog memes, like The Wisdom of Crowds, corporatism, and the Two-Income Trap, and some of the ideas and concepts we have been trying to increase knowledge and awareness of, like Intentional Communities and the Gift Economy, according to Google, “do not have enough search volume to show graphs”. Ouch. Meanwhile, type in the name of the most obscure celebrity, or sexual term, and you’ll see what people are really looking for online. We’ve still got a long way to go.
May 16, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Yeah, it’s pretty enlightening really. You realize just how out “on the edge” some of the Web 2.0 concepts are to the general public.
October 18, 2006 at 12:23 am
Hi
Was it on your site you had a ref to a Google with Kenya colors? Cant seem to find -link?
Thanks
October 18, 2006 at 6:18 am
Sure Kamande, here’s the link to the post.