Trends (from the Google)


More fun with Google trends

The hivemind leaves tracks in Google Trends, which shows relative search volume of given keywords.

I propose a game, called Know The Zeitgeist. Any number of players may play, probably best with 2-20 or so.

Players, in turn, spin an arrow that determines the kind of move they will make:

Move of the first kind: the player declares a keyword or keyphrase. All other players sketch a trendline that they think will match the Google trends output for the given keyword. The closest players get a point; the declaring player gets a point for every player who didn't get close.

Move of the second kind: the player declares two keywords (a "google trend fight"). All other players write one of five guesses: "1 dominates", "2 dominates", "1, then 2", "2, then 1", "too compicated to call'. The winning guess (for one point) is the best description of the two keywords for the period covered by Google Trends (2004-2007 as of today). Again, the declaring player gets a point for every wrong guess.

Move of the third kind: the player takes one keyword already used in the game, and pairs it with a new keyword to generate a move of the second kind. The declaring player gets two extra points if they do better than the first appearance of the keyword, but loses two points if they do worse.

Move of the fourth kind: the player declares a keyword. All other players decide whether the keyword is (a) flat, (b) seasonal, (c) stochastic (tied to news reports), (d) increasing (obvious upwards sweep), or (e) decreasing (...)

I will try to hold a google trends competition sometime soon. In the meantime, for a Hofstadteresque recursive trip, check this out:




This is absolutely the most interesting pattern I've seen on Google trends, with the possible exception of:




What causes that jump and subsequent sustain? Can you find another term that does that??






this is easier to explain; searches for "monthly" peak near the first of the month.


Comparing some actual month names gives something quite remarkable:




And a striking two-week phase shift can be seen here:




(numbers smaller than 14 would be contaminated with other connotations; 14th and 28th are very clearly used a lot for those days of the month).

Posted: Thu - November 22, 2007 at 01:32 AM | | | |

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