United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian (Part 1)

Today I faced off the five most populous countries of the European Union but not against each other. Instead, I investigated the Google-popularity of their names in the five main languages. Note that I kept the order of the languages the same for each country: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian. Let's start with the United Kingdom:



As expected, the English version of the name was by far the most common but was also diminishing in volume at a rapid and sustained pace. Spanish came in second; Italian, French and German barely registered in comparison—remember that the numbers on these Google Insights for Search graphs are relative, not absolute, i.e., not reflecting real volume numbers but only how the different search terms differ in search volume. Next, France:



We had two complications here: the English and French versions of the name were identical and so were the Spanish and Italian ones. In both cases, I kept the two languages on the graph even though only one of the trend lines was visible, that line being the sum total of the two languages' search volume. That way, the language color codes didn't change from graph to graph. Anyway, France was king and it didn't matter whether the French or the English version was what drove this line because the other three languages were so small in volume that they would have been behind even if it were possible to split up the English and French searches. The Tour de France cycling extravaganza produced the annual summer peak (see also my August 9, 2008 post). How about Germany?



This time, I had solid evidence for the native tongue normally being on top: Deutschland bested Germany. Both were decreasing through time. The one time English won out was in June 2006 when even Italian almost caught up with German. The reason: the World Cup soccer took place in Germany that year, mostly in June. The smaller uptick later on was Euro 2008, the European soccer championship. Do we need anymore proof that soccer is king in Germany? :-) This in contrast to France where cycling is king (see above). Next, Spain:



The pattern continued: the native language bested English and both declined through time. Italians had little affinity with Spain. Finally, I analyzed Italy:



One more time we had an "identical twin": Italia is both the Italian and the Spanish name for the country. Of course then, Italian + Spanish bested English. Just like with Spain, there was at least some search volume from the other languages too: I wonder if this might be due to both countries being favorite tourist destinations?

Update: Don't forget to read part 2.

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.

One vs. Two vs. Three vs. Four vs. Five

Numbers are everywhere, aren't they? I had a look at the first five:



No. 1 was... one, clearly so. Hmm... Maybe we should include the actual digits too—Google Insights for Search counts only the numbers by themselves, i.e., 1 but not 102.



Lo and behold, two was now no. 1. Why would that be? Also, when I read the country rankings in the first analysis, Lithuania was first for one. Something tells me that there may be a Lithuanian word written "one" but with a different meaning. Then came the Philippines and the US. In the second graph, the top number, two or 2, was searched the most in Japan, followed by Estonia and Israel. Oh well...

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.