Interesting Numbers

[mstic2000]

Found this on Google Trends. Thought it was pretty neat. It's amazing the things you can find when you're bored.

Google Trends XS1100

[latexeses]

I wonder what happened the last quarter of 2007? I guess their graph doesn't really say how many searches were made.

Now that I really look at it I'm not really sure what they are compiling.

[Larrym]

Market Value

As a member in this forum I'm waiting for the spike.

Then I'm gonna SELL!!

(not!!!)

[mstic2000]

Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results – our Search Volume Index graph.

Located beneath the Search Volume Index graph is our News reference volume graph. This graph shows you the number of times your topic appeared in Google News stories. When Google Trends detects a spike in the volume of news stories for a particular search term, it labels the graph and displays the headline of an automatically selected Google News story written near the time of that spike. Currently, only English-language headlines are displayed, but we hope to support non-English headlines in the future.

Below the search and news volume graphs, Trends displays the top regions, cities, and languages in which people searched for the first search term you entered.


The data is scaled based on the average search traffic of the term you’ve entered.

There are two modes of scaling – relative and fixed – and the only difference between them is the time frame that’s used to calculate the average. However, fixed scaling is only available as a .csv export. Please note that the ability to see numbers on the graph and to export this data with either mode of scaling are available only after you’ve signed into your Google Account for Trends.

In relative mode, the data is scaled to the average search traffic for your term (represented as 1.0) during the time period you’ve selected. For example, if you entered the term dogs, the graph you'd see would be scaled to the average of all search traffic for dogs from January 2004 to present. But if you chose a specific time frame – say 2006 – the data would then appear relative to the average of all search traffic for dogs in 2006. Then, let’s suppose that you notice a spike in the graph to 3.5; this spike means that traffic is 3.5 times the average for 2006.

In fixed mode, the data is scaled to the average traffic for your term during a fixed point in time (usually January 2004). In our example, 1.0 would be the average traffic of dogs in January 2004. If you chose 2006 as your time frame, you would be comparing data for dogs in 2006 to its data in January 2004. Since the scale basis (1.0) doesn’t change with time, you can look at different time periods, and relate them to each other. (Note: For keywords without a historical record, it may not be possible to establish a fixed scale).


Is the news reference volume graph scaled?
No. The graph is for illustrative purposes, and simply shows you the number of times your topic appeared in Google News stories.

[latexeses]

I just saw a starting point of Zero. Not having any more information, that 2007 spike could be twenty searches or twenty thousand. I was just wondering what the numbers or the spikes represented.

No biggie. What ever the number it seems like there is a steady intrest in the 11's.

[mstic2000]

I think the spike isn't really a spike but just a representation of total searches for that given year and not given in terms of months for that year. It looks like they compressed the data in the years that show spikes because they don't have monthly data available for those given years. Mainly just a reference point to compare to other years which are represented with more monthly information is all.......I think.

But from that scale 2005 searches were double that of 2008 or 2009? Maybe their data is off?

Maybe someone with a statistics degree could chime in?