- 21 April, 2009 06:44 PM EST
- Google Trends and EA
I just noticed this tool from Google and decided to try it out. It allows you to compare search trends over time. Here’s what I got when I compared "Enterprise Architecture" (blue) to "SOA" (red), "IT Cost" (green) and "cloud computing" (orange).
EA is flat. SOA went up then down. Cloud is on the rise. IT costs are increasing rapidly in interest. This was in alignment with my expectations. The tool also breaks out trends in search (i.e., search volume index) and trends in news (i.e., news reference volume), so you can see if there might be a relationship. Bottom is news trends. It is plausible that news would drive interest and therefore you could expect a correlation between search volume and news reference. The converse is also plausible. Search interest could trigger increased news coverage.
My less-than-scientific test showed some slight correlation between search volume and news reference, but not much in my opinion.
It also gives this information by region, cities, and languages (see below). In theory, EA is hot in India, Singapore, South Korea, and South Africa. Also, a lot of the searches are done in Dutch. I guess we have a lot of Dutch enterprise architects commuting to India, South Korea, Singapore, and South Africa.(though I'm told "SOA" in the Dutch is an acronym for a sexually transmitted disease) Nonetheless, it might still be a useful tool for enterprise architects. I know I'll be experimenting with it.
