Google Trends

May 12, 2006

Everyone’s blogging about the new Google Trends tool which enables you to see popularity of search terms over time. While you don’t see the actual numbers of queries, it’s helpful to see patterns, or compare search terms on a relative scale.

Two plots of specific interest to me:

Google Trends Plots

Fascinating to note that in May 2004, MovableType 3.0 was released, along with licensing for the first time which is almost precisely when Wordpress became a more popular search phrase than MovableType. Ever since, MovableType has been on a downward trend while Wordpress has taken off. I hardly design any blogs these days in MovableType.

I started using Drupal and using it on various sites at the start of 2005, when interest sharly peaked. It’s a great tool if you’re looking for more than a blog to manage your content.

See also
Comments

  1. If I remember correctly, wasn’t Drupal’s increase due to them asking for funding because their server melted down and Slashdot picked up the story?

    I remember using Drupal before the peak, but only really hearing about it in the mainstream when they asked for funding.

    — Hagrin, May 12, 2006

  2. Rachel

    What’s interesting is if you include “blogger” in there. Although “blogger” is a broader term than just meaning the Blogger blogging service, Wordpress still manages to catch up in 2006.

    In fact, their graphs this year have been almost synchronized, which would/could suggest Wordpress has become synonymous with blogging.

    — Chris Howard, May 12, 2006

  3. “blogspot” and “wordpress” track together very closely from about 2004 to the present.

    — John, May 12, 2006

  4. Thanks Chris - I actually tried having blogger in there initially but thought there were too many other possible meanings - but interesting that, as you note, WP catches up.

    — Rachel, May 12, 2006

  5. [...] Find out the result here. If you enjoyed this post Subscribe to the Free ProBlogger Newsletter [...]

    — Comparing Blog Platform Trends: ProBlogger Blog Tips, May 12, 2006

  6. Yeah,Wordpress is the most popular platform!

    — Richie, May 12, 2006

  7. Typepad has grown steadily during that time. It’s only natural that Wordpress would grow in popularity (if that what the search results indicate) since the install process is far easier than MT.

    — Clark, May 12, 2006

  8. Rachel,
    thanks for the nice idea to comapre bloggin platforms by using google’s trends. I am now in the process of moving my blog http://ohad-news.blogspot.com from blogger to a hosting provider and was not sure which publishing platform to choose. I think I might choose wordpress and go with the masses

    — Ohad, May 12, 2006

  9. From an individual blogger’s point of view, WP has to be the best and it’s certainly getting lot’s of attention as reflected in that graph.

    I am starting to experiment with Drupal though and so far it is pretty good.

    — Rob, May 12, 2006

  10. Hi, thanks for showing what one can do with this new feature. I did another selection:

    I took wordpress, drupal, mambo, joomla, serendipity.
    http://www.google.com/trends?q=wordpress%2Cdrupal%2Cmambo%2Cjoomla%2Cserendipity&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all

    As one can see everything is relative… Mambo lost a lot and wordpress and joomla gained.

    My favorite is http://www.geeklog.net and that is even more relative.

    — HalloMarkus, May 13, 2006

  11. Towards the end of last year, I converted all of my blogs from MovableType to Wordpress. I have never looked back.

    — hacker not cracker, May 13, 2006

  12. I’ve been using Drupal for a number of sites for almost two years…. including a trio of group blogs. If you’re *just* looking for a blog, it’s a bit of overkill, but since most people who stick with blogging for a while tend to go past that and get into other things, it’s a great platform for doing all kinds of things.

    My most used modules are spam, scheduler, service_links (adds digg, reddit, etc), and the various aggregators.

    — Keith Casey, May 13, 2006

  13. Drupal is (to me) a major piece of complex and pain in the ass software. Wordpress just makes more sense. But, getting Wordpress out of the “blog” idea and into a CMS is nearly impossible, and that’s where Drupal is useful.

    — Elliott Back, May 13, 2006

  14. I certainly agree that Drupal is overkill for a normal blog, but as you say if you want to start expanding things, it’s pretty good.

    — Rob, May 13, 2006

  15. [...] Google Trends — cre8d design blog “Fascinating to note that in May 2004, MovableType 3.0 was released, along with licensing for the first time which is almost precisely when Wordpress became a more popular search phrase than MovableType.” [...]

    — Labnotes » Blog Archive » links for 2006-05-13, May 14, 2006

  16. [...] Dieser Frage ging Rachel Cunliffe in ihrem Blog mit Hilfe des Google Trends Dienstes auf den Grund. Hierbei wurden die Anzahlen von verschienden Suchphrasen die über die Suchmaschine Google abgesetzt wurden grafisch über den Zeitverlauf von mehreren Jahren dargestellt. Verglichen wurden die 5 populärsten Blogsysteme Drupal, Wordpress, MovableType, Expression Engine und Textpattern. [...]

    — Bloganbieter.de » Blog Archive » Welches Blogsysteme dominiert?, May 15, 2006

  17. [...] This post is a little late as an introduction to Google Trends as many people had done some interesting trending for blog design, playstation 3 vs xbox360, and many more insights. [...]

    — Fun with Google Trends at Analytic Insight, June 21, 2006