Americans do it in March, Britons do it in the summer and everyone does it December
Yes, that’s right make predictions!
I did a quick analysis on Google Trends to see how big the spike was for end of year predictions.
In the US there is a spike at the end of year, but also a clear spike in March. End of tax year adjustments? In the UK there is the same end of year spike but also quite a clear one in late summer. Any one got any ideas what causes this?
Anyway, happy holidays to all our readers.
Nigel
Popularity: 3% [?]
Tags: google trends, Predictions
January 13th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
The reason for the predictions in the summer is because it’s a silly season occupation. When the press release writers are all away, the news writers haven’t any easy copy. Predictions are the next best thing.
January 15th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Good point. I should follow that up with a Google analysis of sightings of Nessie, random lists, moral panics, child abductions and the like.