Google Trends Revisited

I wrote about Google Trends before but didn't really explore the graphical option (you can also export results to Excel and manipulate the data as you see fit). A few interesting observations. Curiosity about "deflation" started to pick up at the end of last year, versus inflation which spiked earlier in the year as oil hit $147/barrel.


Searches for "cheap wedding" have been steadily increasing over the last five years, especially in 2008. Note the steady decline through the fall and spike at year end. Must be Christmas/New Years engagement surprises?


If the graph below is correct, 2008 may be the year that pawn shops replaced investment banks as sources of capital. I-banks rallied right around the time Lehman collapsed, but then continued trending down. The second image shows a geographic look at the search terms' support: Miami and Las Vegas were both bullish on pawn shops. Coincidence that these cities also have some of the most rapidly falling home values in the country.

Many terms seem to show a cyclical decrease in activity over the summer. Is this due to students being out of school and googling less?