Google Trends

Okay, here's something that's an absolute waste of time, but being the statistical nerd I am, I love it. I'm talking about Google Trends, which is a feature that Google has that allows you to compare two or more search terms over time from 2004 to present to see which gets searched for by Google users the most. As I said, it's not really all that useful unless you're into marketing yourself or something, which is probably why Google keeps it hidden, but I love pitting search terms against one another in a sort of cage match. Using Google Trends I've discovered the following:

1. It's been a back and forth battle, but for the last year or so more people search for "Angelina Jolie" than for "Pamela Anderson."


2. "Star Wars" is consistently a more popular search term than "Star Trek." As you might imagine, there was a huge spike in Star Wars searches when the final Star Wars film came out in 2005.


3. More people search for "pee" than "poop."


4. The Brady Bunch is much more popular than Gilligan's Island, though there was huge spike in Gilligan traffic when Bob Denver died (I didn't even know he was dead!).


5. The NFL is many times more popular than Major League Baseball, though the MLB gets more queries every year from April through June.
   
6. And speaking of cage matches, Hulk Hogan consistently beats "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. It was a close contest at first, but when Hogan made his come-back in 2007 his popularity shot WAY UP. See the chart below for evidence: