Fewer people searching for computer topics on Google

froggyboy604

froggyboy604

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Bouncing around Google's trend data, I came across what to me is a very sad looking chart. It's the search volume for a basket of computer and electronics related terms (e.g."windows, mac, hp, ipod, google, dell, sony, xbox").

We see some seasonality around the holidays, as you would expect, but the dominant trend is DOWN. Every year since Google started tracking this information in 2004, the number of people trying to find information about computers has marched ever downwards.

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The number of people interested enough to Google things about desktops, laptops, and other electronics has been halved since 2004.

Source

I wonder could this mean people know more about computer and how to use them, fix PC, and customize PC, so they don't need to search for PC help as often.

Plus, their computer help books, elementary school, high school or college computer class teach them well enough where they know how to do most of the tasks like e-mail, MS Word, Powerpoint, Facebook, Photoshop, etc they typically do on a computer already, so they do not have to use Search engines, or Google to learn how to do tasks related to computers.
 
I agree, people are more tech savvy these days.

PC makers like HP, Dell, and software companies like MS, Adobe, etc are doing a better job at writing easier to read user manuals and "help documents/files" which come with all their computers, and people usually just go directly to Dell.com , HP.com, and other computer makers websites to e-mail, or use their forum and online help manuals to fix common problems, or call their PC maker for help.

There are also a lot of software like Tune Up Utilities, Advance System Care, Norton Utilities which now can fix a lot of software related problems with Windows and 3rd-party programs.

I remember back in the day a lot of people did not know what a USB flash drive was, or PC can play DVD movies, but now USB flash drive and being able to play DVD on PC is common knowledge.
 
I wonder if this could also mean people are finally using and sharing bookmarks more often to bookmark computer related forums, blogs, and websites for their computer help needs rather then use search which can be unreliable when Bing, Google, Yahoo, etc changes its search rankings where less reliable websites like Yahoo Answers, Answers.com, and About.com dominate the top search results rather then more reliable PC websites like Toms Hardware, Lifehacker, Anandtech, Extremetech, etc being pushed down the result pages.

Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Maxthon, and other web browsers also have bookmark syncing services which let you use your bookmarks on your phone, laptop, tablet, and other PC after you signed into your online account for your web browser in the sync settings.

There are also more active forums, blogs, and websites dedicated to technology and computers these days where if you just become active on a forum or blog about computers, you eventually know how to fix and do most common PC related tasks and problems by reading topics, and replies on the forum or blog about computers.
 
That or there moving to other search sites like yahoo or bing.

But today's world pretty much all schools offer computer classes and there are tons of well known PC help sites. So the need for searches would go down.

@BA, nice :P
 
Computers and programs are also easier to use these days because of better user interfaces "Drag, and Drop, One Button programs which does a lot of tasks by clicking one program" where people don't need to search for how to use, and maintain computers, and some people who found Windows too complicated switch to Google's Chrome OS, Ubuntu Linux, or Apple Mac which I heard was easier to use, and maintain for some users since you don't need to do disk defrags, scan disks, and other Windows exclusive tasks, and Mac users can search for, and learn about programs by buying eBooks, computer tutorial videos, and programs/apps on the Apple App Store/iTunes to easily learn how to use a Apple Mac PC from the confort of home.

It could also mean people are using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc to ask friends and strangers for PC help, or ask a family member or friend offline to do stuff like build a website, or fix their computer for them when they come over to visit, or by using Skype, IM, their phone, cell phone, tablet, and text to ask for help.
 
I believe 10 years a go people where mostly using Windows XP, 2000, 98, etc which can be harder to use then Vista or 7 because there was no Search engine box in the start menu in XP, so people have to manually browse for programs in the start menu, and XP users have to do manual disk defrags which are now done automatically in Windows 7 and Vista.

Windows 98, 95, and older Windows OS also did not have system restore, so if Windows break, you need to reinstall Windows and all the programs.

Computers also seem more reliable these days, so parts like RAM, hard drives, etc don't fail as much then 10 or more years a go.

Also, Antivirus, AntiSpyware, and System utility software work pretty well compared to the past where they seem harder to use compared to newer software like Security Essentials, TuneUp Utilities, and Advance System Care.
 
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