Hugh Laurie vs. Olivia Wilde vs. Kal Penn vs. Robert Sean Leonard vs. Peter Jacobson

Someone on a thread at the German DrHouseForum.de forum asked why Robert Sean Leonard was not included in my face-off. The short answer is of course that Google Insights for Search doesn't allow more than five terms for comparison. Anyway, today I compared the other four main characters of House M.D. against Hugh Laurie so that some measure of comparison with the first House M.D.'s face-off is possible.



Remember that Wilde, Penn and Jacobson only joined the TV show in late 2007. Nevertheless Leonard really didn't score very well in Google-popularity even compared with the second-draft "ducklings." Undeserved in my opinion. Wilde scored particularly well both due to her pre-House M.D. popularity and the peak surpassing even Laurie twice in size in September 2008. The former is explained by her role in the TV show The O.C. while the latter is linked with her increased screen time due to her relationship with Dr. Foreman on the medical procedural. Penn too had some earlier renown from his many appearances on TV and in movies, esp. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Let's have a look at the country rankings for the actors in question:











Funny, Wilde who has both Irish and US citizenship wasn't particularly popular in Ireland but beloved in Canada. Penn, the son of Indian immigrants to the US, did score well in India. Note that Leonard's profile compared best with the first House M.D.'s post pattern: Hungary on no. 1, etc.

Bankruptcy vs. Inflation vs. Recession vs. 1930s vs. Layoffs

Today, I compared the Google-Popularity of some terms that come up a lot in this time of recession:



No.1, bankruptcy, was huge in 2004-2005, then fell somewhat but stayed on top and was again rising this year. The second most Googled word was inflation. Recession was generally low but saw a huge but brief peak in January 2008. Toward the end of the year it had climbed higher again, even surpassing inflation. Note that 1930s actually had a higher search volume in 2004-early 2006 than in 2008. It always displayed a seasonal pattern with a low during the summer.

Let me give you a quick rundown of the country top 3 for each term:



The US appeared in four out of five top 3's. The exception, inflation, had South Africa as no.1, followed by India and Singapore. India actually figured also frequently: three times. 1930s was more an "Anglo-Saxon" phenomenon.

Hot vs. Cold vs. Wet vs. Dry

I analyzed the Google-popularity of four characteristics which are used to differentiate the Greek classical elements (see yesterday's post). Look at the diagram on the right: in Greece at least, the air was hot and wet, water was wet and cold, the earth was cold and dry, and fire was dry and hot. So how did they fare as far as Google search volume was concerned?

Picture Copyright en:User:Heron, Public Domain

Hot was "hot" and the other three were way behind. Not too interesting, maybe the country rankings per term offered more?









It looked like Americans were more concerned with cold and dry, more problematic than the other two. Note that the Netherlands were most worried about wet which makes sense, I guess, as they have been fighting to keep the sea out and their land dry for centuries. The whole Indian subcontinent was very focused on hot.

Air vs. Earth vs. Water vs. Fire

Today, I investigated the four classical elements that, according to ancient Greek, Medieval, Renaissance, Hindu, Buddhist, Japanese, etc. cultural/philosophical traditions, combine in different proportions to account for everything in the world.



Air dominated this face-off. Earth came next but had an irregular trend line: it started the lowest, then went all the way to the top in September 2005 only to settle in second place. Water and fire completed the quartet. How about the country rankings for the four elements:









A few observations: the US seemed very interested in fire and water but not so much in air and even less in earth. Indicative of the stereotype of Americans maybe? Fire and water reign, two aggressive and antagonistic elements contrary to the more subtle earth and air. Maybe Americans are not well grounded (earth), always have big dreams (air)? ;-) Popular psychology, it's a funny thing. How to explain New Zealanders' fondness for air and then fire? They are dreamers with spunk? Haha, of course this is all rather simplistic. Still...

Update: See also the next post.

Food & Drink Searches in the US, Canada, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, Brazil, Japan and India

Today I looked at Google searches about food and drink collectively by a series of countries. What is more, I used the option to show trend lines for each year which should bring out seasonalities. I started with the US:



The two high points of the year were Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday of November) and Christmas. Next, Canada:



In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on a different date: the second Monday of October. This was reflected in the trend lines. Surely, Christmas will also be the gastronomical top in Germany?



Indeed. Note the more gradual buildup toward Weihnachten though. Also, Easter was becoming more pronounced here. That holiday follows a complicated set of rules involving a lunisolar calendar and fell in the Western rite of Christianity on different dates: April 11, 2004; March 27, 2005; April 16, 2006; April 8, 2007; March 23, 2008. Let's go to a prime representative of the Eastern rite of Christianity: Russia.



Primarily because the Eastern rite doesn't follow the Gregorian calendar but instead still uses the Julian one, their Christmases do not always coincide with the Western ones: April 11, 2004; May 1, 2005; April 23, 2006; April 8, 2007; April 27, 2008. We did see a small increase at that time in 2004, 2007 and 2008 but not in the other years. It seemed like Easter wasn't as big a deal as in the Western rite. Christmas trumped everything. Next, Italy:



This displayed a more "multipolar" seasonality: Christmas and Easter, sure, but also mid-February and more. I guess it goes to show that Italians like to celebrate on many occasions—good for them! How about the other stereotypical bon vivants, France?



Besides Christmas, a peak in mid-August also showed. But more interesting was that the search volume went up dramatically in March 2008 as compared with the previous years. Odd. Off to South America I went to investigate Brazil.



Easter was almost as important as Christmas for Brazilians. I wondered what the mid-June increase stood for. It turns out that June 12 is the Dia dos Namorados, a kind of Valentine's Day. Note the more or less increasing search volume through the years. How about Japan?



Even though this country isn't really much Christian, Yuletide was most noticeable in the seasonal trends. It has become kind of a secular, imported holiday. Second most important was early June which I wasn't able to link to any specific holiday or festivity. Does anybody have an idea? Finally, I did an analysis of India:



I couldn't observe any noticeable seasonal peaks in Google searches for food and drink. However, there was a remarkable peak in September 2007. Maybe this had to do with India winning the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 championship? I really don't know. Maybe somebody can help on this one too.

One more thing: I did a quick tally of the top 3 search terms in the analyzed countries, totaling all the occurrences:



Obviously, most people search the internet for recipes or for restaurants. Sushi occurred in the top 3 only in Russia (not Japan!), wine in Germany (not France!). Ramen though was only popular in Japan.

Flu vs. Asthma vs. Pneumonia vs. Bronchitis vs. Sinusitis

Today, I heard on NPR about a new web site: Google Flu Trends. It lets you see where there is more search volume for flu in the US so you can track flu activity by state with comparison for previous years. In other words, this is a Google Insights for Search analysis presented with a more user-friendly interface. It made me think: maybe I should face-off five common diseases?



Worldwide, the flu virus dominated, followed by resp. asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis and sinusitis. The large peaks in October 2004 and October 2005 should correspond with serious flu epidemics. The seasonal aspect of the flu is well known: it occurs in winter. Pneumonia and bronchitis also showed small increases in winter. I proceeded to perform the same analysis for nine English-speaking countries/territories: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and the US.



















The winter of 2005-2006 was a significant peak for the flu in all these countries, other peaks displayed more variation. Some countries, e.g., Ireland and New Zealand, really only had one flu epidemic while for instance Canada and the US had a flu peak every winter. In India, the diseases' trend lines fell through time, perhaps reflecting better prevention and/or treatment through the years?

There is another way of looking at the data: by disease.











Note that the Philippines were no. 1 three times. Germany, Austria and the Netherlands popped up in the top 10 for bronchitis because the term was exactly the same in German and Dutch, unlike for other diseases.

Color vs. Colour vs. Windshield vs. Windscreen in Australia, Canada, India, UK and US

Today I faced off two words variants and then looked at their trends in the major English-speaking countries. First, we looked at color and colour, resp. the US and UK variants.



Worldwide, color was more Google-popular than colour. Color saw a decline but colour didn't. Then we investigated color in Australia, Canada, India, the UK and the US.



Color was popular in the US and on a lower level, a declining one at that, in Canada and India. At the bottom, the UK and the US are slowly declining too. Next, the graph for colour in the five countries:



Colour was actually most Google-popular in Australia, closely followed by the UK. India and Canada followed a tad behind. The UK may use some color even while colour is dominant, not so the US where colour really is an alien spelling.

The second word couple is windshield and windscreen:



Worldwide, windshield dominated. Let's look at windshield separately in the selected five countries:



The US was in the lead, followed at some distance by Canada. The UK, India and Australia barely knew the word. Finally, what about windscreen?



The UK and Australia are "crazy" about windshield, not so the other three countries. In conclusion, it is interesting that Canada leaned more toward the US than toward the UK in this admittedly limited test and this was more pronounced for the vocabulary variants than for the spelling variants. Australia leaned mostly toward the UK while India wasn't clearly closer to one English pole than the other.