Gregory House vs. Lisa Cuddy vs. Temperance Brennan vs. Seeley Booth

Today, I compare the main characters of the popular TV shows House M.D. and Bones. First, we look at the regular Google web search:

In short, Dr. House rules but Dr. Cuddy has clearly been gaining on him. Then comes Dr. Brennan closely followed by Agent Booth, both steadily increasing in search volume but distinctively behind the two front runners—just like the shows themselves, I guess. Google Insights for Search also provides us with country-specific breakouts and rankings:

While the House M.D. characters are most popular in Mexico, the Bones ones are in the US. Overall, House M.D. is more an international phenomenon than Bones. I take it this must be due to the latter not being broadcast in so many countries. Bones characters' regional interest is odd: hardly any European countries make into the top 10 but, for instance, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Yemen, etc. do.

Christmas vs. Halloween vs. Easter vs. Thanksgiving vs. Valentine's Day

My yummy Christmas dinner is almost digested ;-) Time to check on the old Yuletide's status in comparison with the other big—esp. in the US—holidays.



As expected, each holiday had its own seasonal peak and Christmas had the biggest one. Second was Halloween: everyone likes to dress up... Easter peaked in March-April (not fixed in the normal sense). Note that Canada's Thanksgiving Day in October was dwarfed by the US one in November. Valentine's Day was last. Let's have a look at the country rankings for each holiday:











The results were more or less as expected. A few observations: Halloween with its Celtic roots was also important in Ireland (no. 3) and even in Belgium (no. 6)—as a Belgian, I have actually no clue why that would be; of course, I haven't lived there in decades. Why Easter registered so heavily in Australia (no.1) and New Zealand (no. 3) was also kind of puzzling. That Thanksgiving registered at all outside the US and Canada might provide further proof of the supersized influence of esp. the US in the world. South African Googlers were the second-most interested in Valentine's.


Photo Copyright j_wijnands, CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

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.

Marriage vs. Divorce

I faced off marriage/wedding and divorce.



Marriage was much more Google-popular than divorce, no surprise there. Note the seasonal pattern: the summer was the peak season every year while December was the low point. How about we see which countries were most interested in wedded bliss?



The top 3 was: South Africa, the US and Trinidad and Tobago. The latter was interesting: did a lot of Americans and Europeans maybe get married in this sunny, tropical holiday destination? The antithesis then:



In the US, South Africa and Canada, more people used Google to inform themselves about divorce than in other countries. Trinidad and Tobago made it in the top 10 again: no. 8.

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.

Australia vs. Europe vs. Africa vs. Asia vs. Antarctica

Today, I faced off the five continents except for (the) America(s)—the latter would distort everything due to the US commonly being called "America." Also, I used Australia instead of Oceania as that is the more common usage at least in the US; Oceania by the way only received an overall 1% anyway.



Australia was the clear winner of this Google-popularity contest even though it saw a continuing decline. The caveat of course being that the term coincides with a country which may not be "fair" to compare with real continent names (see America above). Europe was also losing "market share." Antarctica was really of little interest. The only time when there was a peak in any of the trend lines was at the end of 2004: the catastrophic tsunami in the Indian Ocean region caused Asia to get a bump.

Golden Retriever vs. German Shepherd vs. Yorkshire Terrier vs. Labrador Retriever vs. Staffordshire Bull Terrier

Using data from the American Kennel Club (2007), the Australian National Kennel Council (2007), the Canadian Kennel Club (2007) and the UK Kennel Club (2006) (see Wikipedia), I calculated what were the five most commonly registered dog breeds in these four countries together: an Anglo-Saxon top 5 so to speak. I did this by assigning ranking points in reverse of the rankings, e.g, the German Shepherd, no. 3 in Canada, got 8 ranking points from Canada. The four kennel clubs' top 10s actually accounted for only 22 distinct dog breeds. This was the full list by the way:

• 1. Labrador Retriever 40
  
• 2. German Shepherd (Dog) 32
  
• 3. Golden Retriever 26
  
• 4. Staffordshire Bull Terrier 14
  
• 4. Yorkshire Terrier 14
  
• 6. Cavalier King Charles Spaniel 12
  
• 6. (English) Cocker Spaniel 12
  
• 8. Boxer 10
  
• 8. Poodle 10
  
• 10. (English) Springer Spaniel 8
  
• 11. Beagle 6
  
• 11. Shetland Sheepdog 6
  
• 13. Border Collie 5
  
• 14. Dachshund 4
  
• 14. Miniature Schnauzer 4
  
• 14. Pug 4
  
• 14. Shih Tzu 4
  
• 18. West Highland White Terrier 3
  
• 19. Dalmatian 2
  
• 20. Bernese Mountain Dog 1
  
• 20. Border Terrier 1
  
• 20. Bulldog 1
  
• 20. Rottweiler 1
  

So what did Google Insights for Search teach me?



Google-popularity ranked the doggies this way:

1. Golden Retriever
   
2. German Shepherd
   
3. Yorkshire Terrier
   
4. Labrador Retriever
   
5. Staffordshire Bull Terrier

This latter list is different from the four-kennel-club rankings. The Labrador Retriever (no. 1) switched places with the Golden Retriever (no. 4). The Yorkie threatened for some time to overtake the German Shepherd but in the end didn't succeed. The Golden Retriever suffered an outspoken decline but stayed clearly on top. But let's look at another feature of Google Insights for Search: split-ups of how the different dogs did in specific countries, starting with the Golden Retriever:



Golden Retrievers were most popular in the US, Austria and Canada. When digging deeper, in the US, the top states were Maine, Colorado and Alaska. How about the German Shepherd?



This time, the US, Australia and South Africa were tops while inside the US it was Alaska, North Carolina and Virginia. Germany wasn't even in the top 10 but of course they would use the German word, Deutscher Schäferhund, to search. Next, the Yorkie.



Lo and behold, Hungary searched most for the lapdog, then South Africa and the US (top states: Georgia, West Virginia, Mississipi). Let's check on the good old Lab:



Labrador Retrievers were Google-popular in the US, the Philippines and Canada. The top 3 US states were Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Last but not least, to utilize a well-worn cliché, came the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a breed with which I must admit I wasn't familiar.



The UK, Norway and Australia were most interested. The US came in only 9th this time (top states: Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana).