Crabby is certainly not the first person to discover Google Trends, but it's an amusing little time-waster if you find yourself online wanting to avoid Actual Work. Of course regular Cranky Fitness readers would never think of surfing during work hours. In fact Crabby is sure the only reason why her site visits drop off dramatically in the evenings and on weekends is that you all have creative flexible schedules and you love working when everyone else is home!Anyway, the deal is this: Google, being quite snoopy, compiles everybody's search terms. It also knows where you live. Thus you can find out what people from various metropolitan areas are searching for and compare them!
(As yet another aside, do those of you with Google email end up with those really funny/freaky context-driven ads that appear next to your email messages? And sometimes they get a whole different idea of what you're talking about and just run with it? Perhaps we should have a contest for most amusing juxtaposition of email subject/advertisement).
Sorry. Crabby is having a hard time staying on topic today. Perhaps she is just hyper from all that broccoli tea she's been drinking.
So one cool thing about Google Trends is that it normalizes the search data--it's not done by pure numbers, otherwise the big cities would always be on top. Instead, it's done by relative popularity. So you get an idea of what the citizens of different cities are most interested in. And since this is a health blog (sort of), Crabby decided to find out Who Searches for What in Health Related Categories!
Are you ready? Here are some Top Five Cities in various categories:
Nutrition:
People who search for "Antioxidants" tend to be residents of:
Chennai, (India); Mumbai, (India), New York, Washington DC, and San Diego.
Those who care more about "Calories" live in:
New York, Washington D.C., Boston, San Diego and Seattle;
While those in search of "Twinkies" live in:
Salt Lake City, St Louis, Seattle, Chicago, and Phoenix.
Exercise:
Those who search for "Pilates" reside in:
New York, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Sydney.
However, people more interested in Dodgeball hit the playgrounds of: Chicago, New York, Washington, Seattle, and San Francisco.
And those who enjoy the subtleties of "Mud Wrestling": can be found in Seattle, Melbourne, Washington DC, Brentford, (UK); and London.
Body Image:
Who cares how Big they are? "Biggest" cities for "Average Weight Male" were New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Toronto, and London.
But women don't have weight issues! At least according to Google, "Average Weight Female" was not a popular enough search to compile a graph. (Crabby should have thought of a better query but did not want to go back and do the Men's over.)
The search for "Average Penis Size" was popular in: Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago, New York, and Seattle. (No Wonder They Call Australia "Down Under!").
And yet again "Average Breast Size" did not have enough searches to rate. However, "Breast Implants" were popular in: Salt Lake City, Tampa, Phoenix, AZ, San Diego, and Irvine, (CA).
Diets:
"Heart Healthy Diet": It was popular in Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and Toronto.
But the "Cookie Diet": was a favorite of those in Delray Beach (Florida), Boca Raton, Miami, Boston, and Cambridge.
Skip the diet, just take a pill, and don't worry about the Oily Discharge? Folks who prefer to search for "Alli" tend to live in: Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta, Miami, and Houston.
And in the Miscellaneous Category:
Looking for an "Oxygen Bar?" You probably live in San Francisco, Pleasanton, Minneapolis, Miami, or Denver.
But those who prefer "Colonics": tend to hail from New York, San Diego, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Irvine (CA).
And finally, the Very Flexible folks wanting to get their fix of "Nude Yoga" do it in Denver, San Francisco, New York, Irvine (CA), and Pleasanton (CA)!
So Crabby is going to forgo the temptation to analyze any of this--she suspects you all might have some observations of your own!
Any surprises? And feel free to contribute any amusing Google Trends you may find, too, or any Bizarre Google Ad/ email combinations. Or as usual, please let Crabby know any Damn Thing that's On your Mind today!
