Fun With Google Trends

Danny just posted about Google Trends, a service of Google that shows you search volume trends over time for a keyword or for multiple keywords. I thought it would be fun to ask Google Trends which search engine, of the top four, is the most popular, in terms of search volume. So I queries Google Trends for Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, MSN (keep in mind ask jeeves is now ask.com). I also thought it would be fun to pin Apple vs. Windows vs. Linux. So let’s see what Google Trends had to say…

Battle of the Search Engines:
Search Volume:
What is very interesting to note, is that Yahoo was queried more often at Google Search than Google. Which makes sense, who in their right minds would search on the keyword “Google” at Google? Um, well, I have seen people do it, trust me. So what is really interesting is that people are actually searching on “Google” at Google. While all search engines seem to have an upward slop, in search volume, Ask Jeeves seems to have a downwards slop. So let’s trend Ask.com on the list as well, and you will notice that the Ask.com search volume bar hits above the Ask Jeeves search volume bar as soon as Ask Jeeves begins to slope downwards. So based on Google Trends, the most popular search engines, in order of search volume are Yahoo, Google, MSN and Ask (as of April 2006).
News Volume:
But when you look at Google News search volume things change slightly. Yes, someone at Google News is more likely to search on the the keyword “Google” because the search is totally different in nature. I am not looking to find Google.com at Google News, I am looking to find news items on Google at Google News. So, as you would expect “Google” is has the highest news search volume. Yahoo, MSN and then Ask follow Google.
Digging Deeper:
What happens when you look at it by city, region or languages, does that change the results? Well, yes! We know Australians are found of Google and Google Trends shows us that Australians are more fond of MSN than Google, but more fond of Google than Yahoo or Ask based on search volume. In India, searchers love Yahoo more than anyone else. From Chile or Turkey, well you gotta have MSN as your favorite search engine. Poor Ask never wins the game but they do pretty well in the United Kingdom. You can also play with cities and languages to see how that makes a difference…

Battle of the Operating Systems:
Search Volume:
For those that know me, I am an Apple fan – using one right now to write this. Unfortunately, not everyone is like me, well the majority of people are not like me. Search volume on “windows” is way more popular than Apple (and Apple also stands for a fruit!) Guess what, Linux is also more popular than Apple!
News Volume:
But when it comes to news search volume, Apple has its spikes. For one, Apple is always more searched on than Linux for news search. But there are times where Apple jumps ahead on news search to surpass Windows.
Digging Deeper:
So what does this mean? Well, obviously, people are more likely to have bugs with Windows OS and Linux OS when compared to Apple. Duh! People are searching for solutions at Google for their problems. Just kidding. The region, language and city breakdown don’t really show too much more on this particular query.

You see, this tool can be used for educational purposes, commercial purposes and can also be used for fun.