Comments on: Google shows a classical downtrend. Sorta. http://classicalconvert.com/2007/10/google-shows-a-classical-downtrend-sorta/ A beginners guide to classical music, by someone who switched at 23 Mon, 21 May 2012 05:15:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Ben http://classicalconvert.com/2007/10/google-shows-a-classical-downtrend-sorta/comment-page-1/#comment-1568 Ben Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:27:42 +0000 http://classicalconvert.com/2007/10/google-shows-a-classical-downtrend-sorta/#comment-1568 Great points! I was thinking exactly along those lines when searching for "music". That's the kind of search term a person would use only when they know absolutely nothing about using the internet to find music. It's tricky to get any hard evidence from an exercise like this. When you do a search for Bach you get all kinds of stories about David Hasselhoff and his ex-wife Pamela Bach. Eeugh. Great points!

I was thinking exactly along those lines when searching for “music”. That’s the kind of search term a person would use only when they know absolutely nothing about using the internet to find music. It’s tricky to get any hard evidence from an exercise like this.

When you do a search for Bach you get all kinds of stories about David Hasselhoff and his ex-wife Pamela Bach. Eeugh.

]]> By: JonJ http://classicalconvert.com/2007/10/google-shows-a-classical-downtrend-sorta/comment-page-1/#comment-1557 JonJ Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:07:37 +0000 http://classicalconvert.com/2007/10/google-shows-a-classical-downtrend-sorta/#comment-1557 Not only don't we know how the volume is measured, we have to keep in mind that what is being measured (assuming the measurement itself makes sense) is searches on a particular search engine (albeit the most popular one) for a particular character string. Does the decrease mean a loss of interest in classical music? Does it mean that folks already know as much as they want to about it and are not searching as much for information? Does it mean that people are searching more and more for particular subjects in the general category of classical music? Who knows? The trend for Beethoven seems to be fairly constant, with ups and downs. Apparently a slight decrease overall, but I don't know if it's very significant. He's most popular in Chile (?), followed by Austria, but the U.S. is nowhere on the list. But these results may be contaminated by dog lovers interested in the "Beethoven" movies. Not only don’t we know how the volume is measured, we have to keep in mind that what is being measured (assuming the measurement itself makes sense) is searches on a particular search engine (albeit the most popular one) for a particular character string.

Does the decrease mean a loss of interest in classical music? Does it mean that folks already know as much as they want to about it and are not searching as much for information? Does it mean that people are searching more and more for particular subjects in the general category of classical music? Who knows?

The trend for Beethoven seems to be fairly constant, with ups and downs. Apparently a slight decrease overall, but I don’t know if it’s very significant. He’s most popular in Chile (?), followed by Austria, but the U.S. is nowhere on the list. But these results may be contaminated by dog lovers interested in the “Beethoven” movies.

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