Dispatch
Ogling Google
Search-engine queries reveal what’s on the minds of Columbus folks
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Nick Chordas
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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The Internet has gone postmodern. Not only can you surf the Web for subjects ranging from the banal to the bizarre, you can also spend hours surfing to see what banal or bizarre terms other people are surfing for.
Google Trends (www.google.com/trends) — a recent addition to the popular search engine — tracks which cities’ Google users devote the greatest percentage of all their searches to a particular term. Enter "Ohio State Buckeyes," for example, and you’ll discover that folks from West Jefferson lead the globe in percentage of searches for the scarlet and gray since 2004.
The Flip Side — which, much to our chagrin, does "not have enough search volume to show graphs" — thought it would be fun to test this new service with Columbus people, places and things in mind.
A word of warning: Google Trends is in an "early stage of development" and states that you "probably don’t want to write your Ph.D. dissertation based on this information." Not to worry, as what follows in no way resembles a dissertation.
Keep your friends close — and your enemies closer
Turning the tables, we searched for Michigan Wolverines and — no surprise — Ann Arbor, Mich., topped the list. Toledo ranked second, however, followed by seven other Michigan cities. Sliding in at No. 10 was Columbus. Conversely, the earlier search for "Ohio State Buckeyes" revealed not a single city in Michigan. Either we’re unhealthily obsessed or Lloyd Carr and his staff aren’t doing nearly enough online scouting. Probably the latter.
Browns vs . Bengals
Google Trends also allows for side-by-side comparisons. We thought this would be a good opportunity to decide — once and for all — which professional Ohio football team’s games WBNS-TV (Channel 10) should air on Sundays. We entered "Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals" and discovered that the Browns hold an almost 2-to-1 advantage in Columbus. Of course, Bengals fans might be too busy celebrating a playoff berth to search the Net — something Browns fans haven’t had to worry about for quite some time.
Ted or Ken ? Or Kenneth ?
Forget expensive polling; we compared Ohio gubernatorial candidates Ted Strickland and J. Kenneth Blackwell to see who is garnering more Google searches. Strickland won by a sizable margin in Dublin and Columbus — at first. Once we changed "J. Kenneth" to "Ken," the gap narrowed considerably in Columbus. In Dublin, meanwhile, Blackwell surged to a commanding lead. Hey, no one said this was an exact science. Just like politics.
We’re not No . 1 ( thankfully )
More than half the fun of Google Trends is entering random words and phrases to see which cities show up. Columbus can be proud that it rarely appears on a number of potentially embarrassing searches. For example, Columbus residents don’t query for "cowtown," although folks in Fort Worth, Texas, frequently do. (Columbus does rank No. 4 in searches for "hillbilly," however.) Columbus also doesn’t show any interest in seeing Paris Hilton nude, which can’t be said for No. 1 ranked St. Louis. Finally, we appear nowhere on the list of cities interested in learning Klingon. The top honor in that category belongs to Zagreb, Croatia.
[email protected]
Ogling Google
Search-engine queries reveal what’s on the minds of Columbus folks
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Nick Chordas
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
<!--PHOTOS--> <table class="phototableright" align="right" border="0"> <!-- begin large ad code --> <tbody><tr><td> <table align="center"> <tbody><tr><td align="center">
The Internet has gone postmodern. Not only can you surf the Web for subjects ranging from the banal to the bizarre, you can also spend hours surfing to see what banal or bizarre terms other people are surfing for.
Google Trends (www.google.com/trends) — a recent addition to the popular search engine — tracks which cities’ Google users devote the greatest percentage of all their searches to a particular term. Enter "Ohio State Buckeyes," for example, and you’ll discover that folks from West Jefferson lead the globe in percentage of searches for the scarlet and gray since 2004.
The Flip Side — which, much to our chagrin, does "not have enough search volume to show graphs" — thought it would be fun to test this new service with Columbus people, places and things in mind.
A word of warning: Google Trends is in an "early stage of development" and states that you "probably don’t want to write your Ph.D. dissertation based on this information." Not to worry, as what follows in no way resembles a dissertation.
Keep your friends close — and your enemies closer
Turning the tables, we searched for Michigan Wolverines and — no surprise — Ann Arbor, Mich., topped the list. Toledo ranked second, however, followed by seven other Michigan cities. Sliding in at No. 10 was Columbus. Conversely, the earlier search for "Ohio State Buckeyes" revealed not a single city in Michigan. Either we’re unhealthily obsessed or Lloyd Carr and his staff aren’t doing nearly enough online scouting. Probably the latter.
Browns vs . Bengals
Google Trends also allows for side-by-side comparisons. We thought this would be a good opportunity to decide — once and for all — which professional Ohio football team’s games WBNS-TV (Channel 10) should air on Sundays. We entered "Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals" and discovered that the Browns hold an almost 2-to-1 advantage in Columbus. Of course, Bengals fans might be too busy celebrating a playoff berth to search the Net — something Browns fans haven’t had to worry about for quite some time.
Ted or Ken ? Or Kenneth ?
Forget expensive polling; we compared Ohio gubernatorial candidates Ted Strickland and J. Kenneth Blackwell to see who is garnering more Google searches. Strickland won by a sizable margin in Dublin and Columbus — at first. Once we changed "J. Kenneth" to "Ken," the gap narrowed considerably in Columbus. In Dublin, meanwhile, Blackwell surged to a commanding lead. Hey, no one said this was an exact science. Just like politics.
We’re not No . 1 ( thankfully )
More than half the fun of Google Trends is entering random words and phrases to see which cities show up. Columbus can be proud that it rarely appears on a number of potentially embarrassing searches. For example, Columbus residents don’t query for "cowtown," although folks in Fort Worth, Texas, frequently do. (Columbus does rank No. 4 in searches for "hillbilly," however.) Columbus also doesn’t show any interest in seeing Paris Hilton nude, which can’t be said for No. 1 ranked St. Louis. Finally, we appear nowhere on the list of cities interested in learning Klingon. The top honor in that category belongs to Zagreb, Croatia.
[email protected]
