Google Trends: what people are looking for on the Internet

Google Trends is a tool from Google that allows you to check the history of a specific term's search on Google in recent years. Such a tool allows us to perceive the tendencies of Google users throughout the years and in specific times of each year.

Interesting conclusions can be reached. For instance, if you search for the terms "stop smoking", this is what you'll get:


You can see that this search has more hits in the beginning of each year. Funny how people always try to quit smoking as a new year resolution :-)

A similar behavior can be seen through the term "diet":


People don't change: every new year's resolution are the same, either quit smoking or go on a diet :-)

What about if we search for other terms or people? For example, if you search for the "crazy socialite" Paris Hilton, this is what you get:


The highest point on this information search was in the beginning of 2005. That was due to the rumor that a certain "intimate" video of Paris Hilton and her boyfriend at the time was traveling around the Internet.

The other highest point was in the middle of 2007, when she went to jail because of being caught driving under the influence of alcohol.

If you search for the term "pope", this is what you'll get:


Funny how this term is relatively ignored by most Google users throughout the years and then suddenly it reaches a high point when the Pope John Paul II died (C) and then another high point when Benedict XVI was named the new Pope (D). After that, the term "pope" vanishes again from Google searches, only to rise once again when the new Pope decides to offend the Muslims (E).

But there are also things in Google Trends that don't really make sense. For instance, searching for "yogurt" will give you this result:


Can anyone explain why the term "yogurt" becomes uninteresting while close to the end of each year, only to rise again in the beginning of the following year????

And to end this already long post, why not search for something like "love":


No, it's not a coincidence that this term is most searched for by valentine's day :-)