Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Collective Intelligence & Market Trends

"If they Google it, they do it"

Not only has "Google it" become a verb, but it has become a method of anticipating market trends prior to analysts completing their reports. The best part is that it is free!

While not an exact science, Google Trends can be used as a prediction method. Comparing the search terms for water pollution, air pollution, energy consumption and oil consumption provide a clear picture of what the market is focusing on.

A ten second search indicates Air and Water pollution are larger concerns then oil and energy consumption. Furthermore, it is possible to see that India and Singapore are the largest searchers on pollution. This provides starting points to understand markets, what they are looking for and what should be investigated further. The link below provides a comparison of search terms related to pollution:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=energy+consumption%2C+water+pollution%2C+air+pollution%2C+oil+consumption&ctab=0&geo=all&date=2007&sort=0

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