A distorted reflection - Google Trends

Gee, since I've had this blog for over two years now and haven't posted anything, I think I'll do that now.


Everybody knows that Google has gobs and gobs of data and they track lots of things. Some of the more interesting data that they keep note of are search trends - you know, the stuff that people put into the search fields.


Google Trends is quite an interesting experience. I have it displayed in my iGoogle so every time I open my browser or pop open a new tab, there it is. Right now, today, here are the hottest trends:

1. german goalkeeper kills himself 2. coastal carolina university 3. germany vs australia 2010 4. wisconsin unemployment 5. tony awards 2010

6. german soccer team 7. pgad 8. unemployment wisconsin weekly claim 9. germany world cup 10. true blood season 3 premiere

11. robert enke 12. lukas podolski 13. four loko 14. german national anthem 15. loretta lynn

16. salem witch trials 17. neal parker crash video 18. miguel castro castro prison 19. bam margera 20. man vs food

This is some of the more normal stuff I've seen come across. After all, we are in the middle of the FIFA World Cup. Soccer (as we call it in the States) or football is not very popular here, but it has been gaining momentum over the past several years.


Anyway, this is the sort of minutiae that truly fascinates me - all the junk that people stuff into the search boxes. Examining it is a bit like knowing the will of millions of people. Powerful stuff, so much so it can drive one to distraction. I really wish I had more time to spend on my artificial intelligence projects that I was doing in Second Life as I think this data, properly parsed, could be used to create a robot that was more aware of current popular events than your average teenager.