The Beat of Our Searching
More than a billion searches are done every day on Google. Do you ever wonder what people are searching for?
I think most of us are a bit curious, and I also think it's something that students are interested in - therefore, it's a good conversation and lesson starter.
An easy and visual way to start the conversation is via a video series called the Google Beat that highlights some of the hottest searches on Google in the U.S. (I'd like to see an international version.)
They pull data from Google Trends, Google Insights for Search and other tools. Those are also interesting tools to use in class. Beyond the video, you could have students dig deeper into the statistics and trends.
I always do a post when the year-end Zeitgeist report comes out. One obvious trend is the pop world of entertainment's dominance in what we are looking for information about online. How many topics related to education, science, literature et cetera can your students find? What can we say when the top searches are the rescue of the Chilean miners, Sweetest Day, sports, and Snooki on South Park?
Here's the video from August when the service launched that shows how it works,
and here's the video look at what were the hottest searches from last week ending October 22, 2010.
I think most of us are a bit curious, and I also think it's something that students are interested in - therefore, it's a good conversation and lesson starter.
An easy and visual way to start the conversation is via a video series called the Google Beat that highlights some of the hottest searches on Google in the U.S. (I'd like to see an international version.)
They pull data from Google Trends, Google Insights for Search and other tools. Those are also interesting tools to use in class. Beyond the video, you could have students dig deeper into the statistics and trends.
I always do a post when the year-end Zeitgeist report comes out. One obvious trend is the pop world of entertainment's dominance in what we are looking for information about online. How many topics related to education, science, literature et cetera can your students find? What can we say when the top searches are the rescue of the Chilean miners, Sweetest Day, sports, and Snooki on South Park?
Here's the video from August when the service launched that shows how it works,
and here's the video look at what were the hottest searches from last week ending October 22, 2010.
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