How to Use Google Insights as a Research Tool
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The document discusses Google Insights, a free tool that allows users to track interest in topics over time and location based on Google search data. It can compare search interest for multiple keywords, locations, or time periods. However, it has limitations as it only includes search data from major markets and unambiguous keywords. The numbers provided by Google Insights represent an indexed scale of search interest proportions, not absolute search volumes.
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How to Use Google Insights as a Research Tool
- 1. June 2012 Best Practice Briefing How to Use Google Insights as a Research Tool Google Insights is a free tool from Google that allows users to track interest in a topic over time, or across locations, or in comparison with other topics. There are limits to its usefulness, but it can be a great starting place in an investigation. 1. What is Google Insights? http://www.google.com/insights/search/ Every time somebody searches for something on Google, for example if they search for references to ¡°Vision Critical¡± the string ¡°Vision Critical¡± is stored in Google¡¯s database, along with the date and the location of the person requesting the search. For example, in the chart below (Chart 1) the line reflects the popularity of typing iPhone into Google. This chart looks at the global database, from September 2006 to May 2012.means. Chart 1, Google Insights, Worldwide search. In Chart 1, the line shows that there were relatively few searches for iPhone towards the end of 2006, but thereafter the line grows strongly, with peaks in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. The 2011 peak corresponds with the launch of iPhone 4S, just as the peak in 2010 was the iPhone 4. (There is a note at the end of this article explaining what the numbers mean). Google Insights offer some help in assessing what caused the changes in the line. By clicking News Headlines box a list of headlines are listed to the right of the chart. Further down the page there is a list of search terms used and a list of rising searches, clicking on these drills down further into the data.
- 2. June 2012 Best Practice Briefing 2. What can you do with Google Insights? There are three ways to configure searches in Google insights, by key words, by time, and by location. These three are explained in the following three sections. Searching by Key Words Google Insights allows a comparative set of key words to be searched, for a specific geography for a specific period of time. For example, the chart below (Chart 2) shows the words Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Pinterest, in the context of the USA from 2006 to 2012. In conducting this search the user is using Google searches as a proxy for interest in, i.e. if lots of people are searching for a particular term, then there is lots of interest in it at that time. Chart 2, Google Insights, 2006 to 2012, searching for Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Pinterest. Chart 2 shows that in 2006, 2007, and 2008 MySpace was ahead of Facebook and growing, but from 2009 Facebook comes to the fore. Later on, Twitter and Pinterest come on the scene and overhaul MySpace, but presenting no challenge to the popularity of searches about Facebook. Searching by Time Google Insights allow the user to compare a single search across different periods of time. The chart below (Chart 3) shows the word biscuit in Australia. Chart 3, Google Insights, Australia, searching for Biscuits for 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. The chart shows a small spike in December, related to biscuits at Christmas. The larger spike, in April, relates to Anzac biscuits, a biscuit associated with Anzac Day. www.visioncriticaluniveristy.com Page 1
- 3. June 2012 Best Practice Briefing Searching by Location The third option is to compare locations, holding the search term and the time frame constant. In the chart below (Chart 4), the word Samsung is compared for France, Germany, UK, and United States. Chart 4, Google Insights, Samsung, for France, Germany, UK, and United States. The chart shows that interest in Samsung (as measured by the proxy of Google searches) is lower in the USA. In 2004 the scores for Samsung were very similar for UK, France, and Germany. From about 2009 the Samsung scores for Germany pull away from those of France and UK. 3. Meaning and Limitations The limitations of Google Insights Although Google Insights is very powerful (and free) it does have a number of limitations. The most important two are: I. Only countries where there are sufficient users of Google produce reliable results. For most of the larger, more developed countries, there are no problems but for some of the smaller countries tend to produce lumpy results, because there are too few people using Google in those countries. II. Only words that are unambiguous are searchable. For example, iPad is fine, but Apple is more of a problem as it also refers to the fruit. Nokia is very searchable as is Vodafone, but brands such as Orange and Virgin are too ambiguous. Another limitation is that it can sometimes be a bit tricky to find out what was driving a specific spike in the data. www.visioncriticaluniveristy.com Page 2
- 4. June 2012 Best Practice Briefing What the numbers mean Any internet based measurement is confronted by the problem that the number of users has been growing month by month, making simple comparisons based on absolute numbers unsuitable. Google creates This means that all searches only make sense an index in approximately the following way: a) For each of the search terms being tested, calculate the proportion of all searches for that date. b) The highest proportion for any of the key words, for any of the dates, for any of the locations in the search is set to 100. c) All other proportions are scaled between 0 and 100. This means that all searches only make sense in terms of the words, times, and locations in that specific search. Change any item and the scaling changes. Prepared for For more information Vision Critical University www.visioncritical.com Prepared by www.visioncriticaluniversity.com Ray Poynter, Director, Vision Critical University email university@visioncritical.com twitter @visioncritical Ray is the author of The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research, the creator of NewMR.org, and is in North America: +1 877 669 8895 constant demand as a conference speaker, contributing UK: +144 (0) 20 7633 2900 author, workshop leader, and advisor. Ray describes his Australia: +61 (1) 9256 2000 role in Vision Critical as chief noisemaker and iconoclast. Hong Kong: +852 3602 2107 www.visioncriticaluniveristy.com Page 3