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Interesting triathlon trends on Google

[Deleted User][Deleted User]
in Community Forum 🏠

For those of you who don't know, Google has a nifty tool that allows you to look at long term trends by entering different search queries. Lots of fun to do comparisons between different things, and you can find interesting and insightful trends. You can play around with it here: http://www.google.com/trends/

Here's one I did:

Clearly there are patterns here! My observations:

  • "Triathlon" seems to peak in search popularity every year around July/August. But why that time of year? Why not in October when Kona takes place?
  • There are two popularity spikes per year for "Ironman". The first one roughly coincides with the annual peak for "triathlon", which perhaps isn't surprising. The second one is indeed in October; my guess is that's from a mass of people searching for a Kona broadcast.
  • So what happened in the IM world that caused that hugeass spike in May 2008?? 

Now let's take a look at individual tri disciplines (of course there will vary depending on the exact search terms you use):

  • Relatively speaking, seems that people just aren't as interested in looking for information about riding a bike as they are about running and swimming
  • Seeing that these trends all follow roughly the same shape, does that suggest most people are swimming year-round? Since swimming is the more technical sport and there's more to "learn" for adult triathletes, I guess I'm not surprised that the search volume is so high.

Admittingly this is all an oversimplified analysis on my part, but it's fun to see what people search for. And before reading too much into this we musn't forget the golden rule of data analysis: correlation does not imply causation! 

 

Post any interesting finds of your own!

Comments

  • Paul HoughPaul Hough
    Interesting analysis. It would appear that interest in ironman has fallen off since 2008 but that doesn't correlate with the increase in IM opportunities.
  • davelusignandavelusignan
    this is very cool!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]

    Another related tool is Google Correlate. Basically, you type in a search term, and it shows you other search terms with very similar trends: http://www.google.com/trends/correlate

    Here's an very good match-up between "triathlon" and "golf course". Not surprising, seeing that both are seasonal outdoor sports that involve dressing up in fancy clothes and putting in a huge time/money investment. 

    Running and injuries seem to come hand in hand:

    Occasionally you get really strange and entertaining combinations like this: 

    The possibilites are endless. I basically spent the whole afternoon on this site. 

  • Paul HoughPaul Hough
    That last one is spurious correlation at it's finest!
  • Jenn EdwardsJenn Edwards
    Posted By Anson Lam on 01 Jan 2013 02:45 PM

     

     

    • So what happened in the IM world that caused that hugeass spike in May 2008?? 

     

     

     



    So fun!  Thanks for sharing.  The movie "Iron Man" came out in May 2008.  Wonder how many moviegoers ended up on some random tri site wondering if they were on the right planet...

     

     

     

  • Paul HoughPaul Hough
    Thanks for solving the puzzle Jenn!
  • Paula Nystrom Paula Nystrom
    In May Lance competed in and won IM Florida 70.3
  • Coach PatrickCoach Patrick
    Very cool Ansom...thanks!!!
  • Michele CellaiMichele Cellai
    Endurance Nation started in early 2008.
    Perhaps the May "spike" was the mad rush to join once folks heard about how awesome we are?!
    (I joined March or April 2008)

    OK. Probably not. But a fun thought.
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