Catching the Buzz – Part 2 of 2
Why is Harry Potter so popular in Salt Lake City? Is that the first city that comes to mind when you think of Harry Potter? Me neither.
But it has to be true because Google said it’s true. At least that’s what Google’s keyword trends software told me. You can check it out for yourself here.
Go there and enter ”Harry Potter.” You’ll be taken to a “Trend history” page that shows relative data for the search term plotted above the general reference level for news activity.
From the drop down list labeled “All Regions”, select ”United States” and then look just below to see the top regions and cities. Utah and Salt Lake City are on top of their respective categories and both by a comfortable margin (you don’t get any absolute numbers with Google Trends just a relative bar graph so there’s no way to know if the rankings represent 5 or 5,000,000 people.)
If you click on one of the top states, (say, #5 New Hampshire), you’ll see a list of the top 10 cities in NH.
You can zero in on any state even if it is not in the top 10 by selecting it from the “All subregions” list.
You can do the same with time down to the month level by clicking on the “All years” list.
If you can live with the uncertainty of not having absolute numbers, this capability can provide some interesting results if you are looking to figure out where books like yours (or your very own books if they have been out long enough) are popular. To me, that kind of data would be very useful if I was planning a book tour or some regional marketing.
Finally, you can simultaneously compare things by simply entering them separated by commas. For example, “harry potter, the secret” will display data for both of them on the same graphic and allow you to see how they compare to each other.
Fun stuff and another arrow in the quiver.
Gary Ward
Topics: Books, Google Trends, Keywords, Search Engines, Technology | No Comments »
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