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Going from a previous comment in my brainspace post earlier this week...
This is kind of sad really. Here is what it looks like. The axes imply relative number of searches since it doesn't seem like you get hard numbers on this (from Google Trends).
What's kind of interesting is that you can kind of see (for Britney and Paris, anyway) where the major news events occurred. In Britney's case, there are two large peeks which actually correspond to her head shaving and some bad performance at an awards show. I'll leave it up to you to figure out what the Paris peaks are, but I would guess it has something to do with her going to jail.
At this scale, it doesn't seem like you can pick up hose sorts of trends on the term "climate change."
If we do expand the scale so that you can see the peaks for climate change, this is what you get:
It would be interesting to see if web interest is maybe dictated by seasonal events (like certain weather examples). I do note, however, that the announcement of Al Gore and IPCC getting the Nobel Peace Prize (Oct) didn't seem to do much here. On the other hand, February was when the Working Group I of the IPCC released their science report (the one that really emphasized anthropogenic effects) - although from the graph, it looks like something happening in January sort of set things off.
Education & Careers
Comments
"anthropomorphic effects" should be anthropogenic effects. January spikes may have been related to 2006 year-end figures of surface temperature anomolies.
Posted by: Winnebago | January 15, 2008 1:51 PM
Are search terms a good indicator of interest? I read a lot about climate change, but most of it comes through my RSS reader and I rarely (if ever) type the term into a search engine.
Of course, maybe the people who are using these search terms are the people who don't normally get info on the subject -- they just heard something that makes them want to know more about Britney Spears or the IPCC report, but they don't have E! Online or RealClimate bookmarked. If that's the case, the graphic is bad news. Climate instability is a lot more dangerous than that of Ms. Spears.
Posted by: Liz | January 15, 2008 2:35 PM
Oops - Thanks Winnebago - I've changed it.
Posted by: David Ng | January 15, 2008 2:41 PM
Google trends is by no means exact, we have no idea if the vertical scale is linear or not and in my experience it hasn't been that great in showing seasonal interest in a topic.
Posted by: Michael | January 15, 2008 4:12 PM
Not to her kids its not.
BTW, has the code word gone from "Global Warming" to "Climate change" to "Climate instability?" Just trying to keep up on things.
Posted by: Vanderleun | January 15, 2008 4:24 PM
"In my experience it hasn't been that great in showing seasonal interest in a topic."
In my experience Google Trends reflects Drudge interest in a topic.
Posted by: vanderleun | January 15, 2008 4:26 PM
The result is slightly less depressing if you put in global warming as well as climate change as it seems to be a more popular term.
Also, paris hilton wins out in non-english speaking countries, so searches for her might appear inflated due to the language difference.
We can also take heart in the news results, far more about climate change and global warming compared to paris.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=climate+change%2C+global+warming%2C+paris+hilton%2C+climate&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
Posted by: Alex | January 15, 2008 8:37 PM
"In my experience it hasn't been that great in showing seasonal interest in a topic."
In my experience Google Trends reflects Drudge interest in a topic.
Posted by: vanderleun | January 15, 2008 4:26 PM
I think we will see a high spike during the middle of the summer heat wave. It's hard to get them concerned about global warming while they are freezing and shivering.
Dave Briggs :~)
Posted by: Dave Briggs | January 17, 2008 11:13 AM
I personally use the word 'global warming' as do many others, so this may not be entirely reliable
Posted by: Anisha | January 19, 2008 9:47 AM
I was going to make the same comment as Anisha: people might be looking for "global warming" instead. Or for "melting ice caps" or "polar bears" or who knows what. There are too many search terms leading to the same stories.
Posted by: Eva | January 20, 2008 9:50 PM