Comments on: Graphs are fun

By: Ian

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:50:13 +0000

Oh yeah, definitely. Google trends tells us about as much about election day as poll data does (with our current system). Especially consider the (smaller in Canada) number of people without internet access.

It’s definitely interesting though.

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By: James Bell

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:38:53 +0000

I agree with thoughtcounts Z.
Maybe a candidate gets searched more because he’s very bad at stating his position, so everyone has to go online to find out what he really means.
Maybe a party has less descriptive advertising in other mediums, so people resort to the internet for those parties.
And people who are really interested in only one specific party are likely to have that party’s page bookmarked, and use Google for the other parties.

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By: thoughtcounts Z

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:03:11 +0000

Google Trends is awesome. As far as its political implications go, though, I wonder what searches really mean. I know when I search for information about candidates it’s usually the ones I don’t plan to vote for, because I’m already familiar with most of the available information about the candidates I support, and I’m just looking to verify something I heard or something I’m trying to explain about their opponents. I’m sure I’m not a typical internet user, though. At any rate, I’d say that high search volume is definitely related to prominence in the news and name recognition, but I’m unsure how much it indicates popularity. I’m curious what you think.

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