Yesterday I was curious about Google Trends service that I tried several search terms just to get the feel of it. This is one of the interesting trends that I like to share with you, it is about the search term of popular GNU Linux distribution based on Distrowatch.com list.
While this is not an in depth analysis, we can see the relative search term popularity for the past 3 years base on the graph generated from Google Trends.
From there we can see that people started to search for Ubuntu more than Fedora Core around the end of the first quarter of 2005 (around the time of Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog release).
Similarly, people started to search for Mandriva after MandrakeSoft changed it’s name to Mandriva around April 2005 (second quarter), and the announcement of openSUSE project in August 2005 (3rd quarter).
The ‘surges’ on Fedora Core’s line indicates new releases made around the time (FC 2 – May 2005, FC 3 – Nov 2005, FC 4 – Jun 2005, FC 5 – Mar 2006, FC 6 – Oct 2006) [source].
Conclusion : When you see anomalies like sudden ‘surges’ in the trend, then there must be some even closely associated with it. Watch for surges that repeats itself, then you can establish a pattern and understand what causing the recurring trends.
[tags]search terms, search engine, linux, distro, ubuntu, fedora core, trends, search[/tags]
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