Google Zeitgeist
The 2005 Google Zeitgeist is out… I’ve never really cared too much about these sorts of things but I had a quick look through and I can’t help but be surprised about the information it tells us.
Janet Jackson is the top news search in 2005? Okay, I can just about understand her being top last year, thanks to the “wardrobe malfunction” but this year? I mean, why?
But what really surprised me was the way people use Froogle for their price-matching searches… I use it from time to time (quite recently, actually, and I bought an item from the best price it had to offer, so it does get used), but only once I’ve done a little research into the item I’m buying. Say I wanted to buy a new lens for my camera… I’d find suitable matches in my required zoom range, compare the RRP, read some reviews, possibly try one out and then check the exact model number on Froogle. Okay, so a lens is a fairly expensive item… but I also did this to find a cheap price on a £12.99 pair of gloves—I checked around the shops, read some reviews, turned to Froogle.
So, here’s where it gets crazy. The second most searched for item on Froogle is “digital camera”. What? “Digital camera”? Is that the best people can come up with? Are they stupid? Well, maybe they’re just tight gits looking for the cheapest piece of through-and-through plastic that they can buy and give to their loved ones (well, it is Christmas) and say “here, I got you a ‘digital camera’”.
Not everybody is into electronics, cameras, etc. but if I were about to buy… say, a vase for some flowers, some new mats for my car or even a new mobile phone… you can bet I wouldn’t search Froogle for “flower vase”, “car mats” or “mobile phone”. Why? Because the results would be useless. But before I get past “mobile phone” let’s think some more… I bet people don’t search for “mobile phone”, either. No, they’ll be searching for “razr”, “pebl”, “nokia 9110”, etc. So, they can do the reading, trying and checking for mobiles phones… but not cameras? I’m confused… why? I guess that phones are in adverts and phones look “cool”... but it’s an electronic gadget just the same as a camera… they look “cool” too.
I could keep going as weighing in at six and nine are “laptop” and “computer desk”, respectively.
Grr.
Tags: computing
December 20th, 2005 at 11:56 pm
You’re right, people do this for eveything, partly because they don’t know better, but mostly because they don’t want to or even need to know better.
They don’t care if the new TV does HDTV or has scart inputs, because it will just be connected to the 20 year old VHS player.
They don’t want to know about digital cameras, because at the end of the day they will walk into Dixons and the nice young man will persuade them to part with the maximum amount possible.
Who cares that the laptop they are buying is much too over priced, or the desk will break in half a year? I think the answer is pretty much nobody, most people would rather just get into a shop, buy something and then continue thinking of exactly how drunk they are going to get on Friday night.
Unfortunatly we belong to the group of sadacts known as “prosumers”, ie we have way too much time and we have way too much money, we are therefore quite happy to spend days or weeks on the internet attempting to figure out what we are going to sneer at next time we are near a shop.
(Incidentally, most people know next to nothing about mobile phones aswell, there are just a few that actually know what they are talking about, the rest just spew the stuff that Baz from down the pub told them)
December 21st, 2005 at 2:08 am
Well then.
They are WRONG and I AM OFFENDED!