Google Insights - pessimistic

[DavidL]

Is it just me but does it seem to show most searches declining?

In other words is search volumes are stable, the reality is the search is booming?

worgeneral's analysi of digital cameras made me think but plenty of robust industries apparently have searches trending down:

'new cars', 'real estate' to name a couple

 

[Ash]

This is a longshot, but could it be that the Google Insights are relative and although the search term may be steady (i.e. about the same number of searches in 2004 as in 2010), the number of people using the Internet and Google search has increased - but this new population is not necessarily searching the same as users back in 2004. I.e. they use social media... would be interesting to see insights into the recommendation of products via social media sites like twitter and facebook where people are asking their friends instead of relying on a faceless search engine.

Maybe?

 

[DavidL]

Yeah that's a good theory and may bexplain part of it. But even before social media took off things seemed to decline.

Eg 'new cars', something I'm familiar with.

Index in 2004 was around 83 in 2004. In 2007 it was 65 but that was a record year for car sales (1 million sales)

 

[WG2010]

http://www.google.com/support/insights//bin/answer.py?hl=en-US&answer=87285 is a pretty good explanation.

Generally what I do is compare a keyword to another one I am already familiar with traffic wise.

 

[Data Glasses]

maybe overtime people have found what they need/want and have stayed loyal meaning they are no longer searching ?

 

[FirstPageResults]

average number of keywords searched has increased over time.. so more long tail searches (more relevant results) and a change in the way people search for things as algo's have improved