Comments on: Patterns in the Group Mind

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:38:25 +0000

My husband is in the video game industry and says that common release dates are after the end of a fiscal quarter, i.e. the April end of first fiscal quarter, and November, end of third fiscal quarter. Isn ‘t it fairly common to release new products at these time periods? Seems more likely that concerned parents are a bigger demographic than people who have some weird archetypal responses to Columbine or students doing research papers.

By: Britnee

Britnee — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:21:59 +0000

I think the reason for the November and April peaks for “violent video games” is because for students, that’s close to the end of their semesters and I’m sure many of them are writing their end-of-semester papers on “violent video games”. Therefore, that’s why there’s higher search results during that time.

By: dsi

dsi — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:29:08 +0000

I am also with this information, Nicely content. Thanks for sharing information with us

By: david

david — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:48:05 +0000

Or even

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=god%2Cscience&cmpt=q

By: EricG

EricG — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:47:35 +0000

Uh oh…

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=religion%2Cscience&cmpt=q

By: Digital Information Design Best Practices - Programming Blog

Digital Information Design Best Practices - Programming Blog — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:52:47 +0000

[...] Google Insights (via Information is Beautiful): [...]

By: Dean

Dean — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:40:22 +0000

Searches for baby names vs abortion in Aus:

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=baby%20names%2Cabortion&geo=AU&cmpt=q

Peaks in baby names every winter. 9 months before winter: Spring. Figures show similiar pattern in the US.

Also, most likely the downward trend seen in most of these could be accounted for by the increase in google searches themselves over the last few years, as the term is measured relative to other search terms so obviously as google use goes up so to will the number of search terms.

By: Mark Elliott

Mark Elliott — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:10:09 +0000

The April & November peaks are undoubtedly searches by college students. “Video Game Violence” remains a wildly popular topic of choice for the undergraduate research paper, particularly among lazy students, who, as you might imagine, generally begin their “semester-long” research 2-4 weeks before semester’s end. Nothing to do with Hitler or Columbine or even Christmas…just every third nineteen-year-old avoiding a trip to the library.

By: david

david — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:06:00 +0000

@angela white – I added those myself. In Insighst though, you can roll over the graph to see the months.

By: Angela White

Angela White — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:50:33 +0000

Question: How did you get the months to display? I can’t figure it out?

Thanks in advance!