Popularity of Birding
So, I'm very interested in the discussion started by Bird Stuff about using Google Trends to measure an activity's popularity. Have you checked out Google Trends? It's a way to track and search out how popular things are down to the region. Birding is not nearly as popular as hunting and especially fishing. I'm not sure if this means birders are deluding themselves about how many people are interested or if it just can't be quantified that way?
I did a comparative search for the ivory-billed woodpecker with birds like cardinals, hawks, owls, etc--even gull registered higher than ivory-billed woodpecker. Apparently, ivory-bills are not nearly that fascinating to the world. Hm.
I did a comparative search for the ivory-billed woodpecker with birds like cardinals, hawks, owls, etc--even gull registered higher than ivory-billed woodpecker. Apparently, ivory-bills are not nearly that fascinating to the world. Hm.
posted by birdchick at 2:14 PM
6 Comments:
Maybe the lack of "interest" in the IBWO has something to do with the fact that a lot of people are doubting its existence.
I don't think birders do searches on birding in general. I think they have their favorite website that they go to when they want to look a bird up. For example, if I want to know where the slaty-backed gull is common, I go to enature.org or whatbird.com and look the gull up there. If I'm going to visit San Francisco, I'm going to visit the San Francisco website to see where I should go to find birds.
But how do you find those websites without googling them first?
Thanks, Birdchick, for referencing my blog and my explorations into the mysterious world of Google Trends. I find myself doing Google searches on birding all the time, and am always rewarded with neat and interesting stories that have been published in local media throughout the world. I'm still perplexed as to why birders would be less inclined to Google birding than hunters would be to Google hunting or gardeners to Google gardening. Oh well, this inquiry at least helps pass the dog days of summer.
Maybe birders are using a different search engine? Could birders be heavy yahoo users?
I've been a birder for decades and only search the web when I'm going to a totally new location. About 4 times that I can remember. I'd rather just go birding than read about it on the web.
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