5 ms·
Not quite. If I want to start a project in, say R, I don't think I will start by searching "Open Source". I will search for "R". Here is the trend: https://ww
by tmbsundar 11y ago
Not quite.
If I want to start a project in, say R, I don't think I will start by searching "Open Source". I will search for "R". Here is the trend: https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=software%20as%20a%20service%2C%20open%20source%2C%20API%2C%20R&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B4 https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=software%20as%20a%20...
So, this analysis is not accurate. Someone searching for "Open Source" might have been prevalent when the OSS movement was nascent. Now I think people will look for specific technologies rather than blanket terms.
- andrewstuart2 11y agoPlus, the consensus has been reached by now, I'd imagine, that github, bitbucket, and gitlab are the best places to go for open source software. If you just wanted to explore the world of open source, you'd either search one of those terms, or go directly to the site.
- mavhc 11y agoI use "open source" when searching for Windows applications, to avoid the trialware etc
- manigandham 11y agoYes, this is the fallacy of using search terms as the data for any analysis that isn't about search terms.
- ConfuciusSay02 11y agoYeah, I always cringe when people claim to have made some huge insight based on Google search trends.
- jdonaldson 11y agoYeah, you have to be careful which conclusions you reach from these trend plots. By the author's arguments, I could argue that maybe people just won't be interested in software at all anymore in a few years: https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=software%20as%20a%20service%2C%20open%20source%2C%20API%2C%20software&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B4 https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=software%20as%20a%20... A lot of these concepts are just too general to search for. That doesn't mean they're less popular, it just means their conceptual boundaries are too big for a single phrase.