A map of my region might include mentions of Bloody Marys, amateur boxing and fluffy kittens. What about you?
Depending on where you live, Google Trends may be able to give you a fairly accurate prediction.
According to this About Us page,
“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 graph…When Google Trends detects a spike in the volume of news stories for a particular term, it labels the graph and displays the headline of an automatically selected Google News story written near the time of that spike…Below the search and news volume graphs, Google Trends displays the top cities, regions, and languages for the first term you entered.”
The results so far have been telling. St Albans, Hertfordshire, has been named the “most self-absorbed city in Britain” due to an over-abundance of searches for gyms, weight loss devices, plastic surgery and Pilates.
I wonder if people will start using this app as a tool to predict whether somewhere will be a good place to live?
Read the complete article here in the UK Times and then check out the TV station that’s a hit with the thumbsucking set.
Related in Searchviews: Google Trends coverage from our Google Press Day Wrap-up.
