http://google.com/trends?q="straight+dope"&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
Google Trends is a new one on me (although it has been mentioned on the SDMB before). But nobody has pointed out the steady slow decline of interest in Cecil’s oeuvre :eek:
Anyone know what happened in April 2004? Slashdotted?
I thought the thread was earlier than 2004, but what would make the most sense would be the appearance of “If The Lord Of The Rings Was Written By Someone Else”. That was picked up by several other sites…
I’ve never seen Google Trends before. That is really freakin’ cool.
“Hot Teens” still going strong though.
I think y’all killed it.
Edit: it’s back. Now, how do I track the popularity of searches for “Google Trends” on “Google Trends” over time…? 
Maybe people realized the average column is always the same- say someone writes in and asks who invented the necktie. Cecil will go off on a tangent for a few paragraphs ruminating on the history of the necktie throughout the ages, then a paragraph or two more offering theories on who may have invented it, then ending with the standard “no one knows for sure”?
That was my first guess, too. But I found that thread, and it looks like its lifespan was from October 2002 to Feb 2004 (holy crap!), although I don’t know how many necromatic posts happened along in the middle.
And if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to play with Google’s new (?) toy…
This is neat; it’s like the “15 minutes of fame” search. Example.
I can see how people searching for “straight dope” directly would be going down, but I’ve seen both the collum and threads from here show up prominently on searches for answers to questions, such as the dreaded airplane on a treadmill.
“Straight Dope” vs “Cheech and Chong” -About the same volume, and the same trend.
“Straight Dope” kicked “Ron Paul”'s ass until 2007.
We’re still doing better than “Calvin Coolidge”, whose popularity mysteriously drops to Zero each year around Christmas.
More searches from Austin, or am I reading that page wrong? The Austin Chronicle does carry the column, but their circulation is less than the Reader’s.
Actually the popularity plummets in summer (the year labels are placed under the middle of the year on the axis).
And rowrrbazzle, the search results are adjusted by total number of searches, so Chicago likely has more by number, but Austin has a higher percentage.
Ah, School’s Out, and Cal goes Silent as the Business of American students turns to fun.
It was me, wasn’t it?
I’ve never been trendy, and I’ve been on the SDMB so much that I’ve pulled the whole place down.
I’m sorry.
:: hangs head, goes off to self-flagellate in the corner ::
Aw. At least mop up afterwards if you’re going to do THAT.
ask.com’s graph goes up pretty much inversely to ours going down.
After beating him for a straight year, we’re now locked in a deadly battle with Chairman Mao. On the other hand, Cheese Whiz is just a blip on the radar by comparison.
iPhone is just a tad bit ahead of us… That spike in 2004 is reduced to a single pixel.
Wasn’t April 2004 when they went Pay-to-post?