Google has released a Trends service that allows you to see how many people are using that term over the past few years and even see what regions/cities are using those terms the most. You can also compare up to five multiple terms using commas. As an example, MLS vs Major League Soccer. 2006 seems higher than last year, but overall the search terms tend to be high during the season then drop off after it's over, which is to be expected. I find it odd how many people are searching for MLS in Canada. The comparison thing is fun because you can do things like see whether people are searching for "FC Dallas" or "Houston Dynamo" more. (I wasn't sure if this was N&A since you can glean data from Google Trends or General since it's kinda fun)
Good to see Canada as the top normalized region but it is worth bearing in mind that MLS is a real estate term as well as a soccer league:- http://www.mls.ca/
I had to pry myself away from it after about 20 minutes of playing around on it. Its interesting, but I am not sure what to make of it. Doing MLS, NFL, NBA, NHL was interesting.
Perhaps this will finally shut the Red B*** supporters up. DC United vs. New York Red Bulls Not much better... DC United vs. Metrostars
As someone already said in this thread.....MLS could mean real estate listings, not necessarily a soccer league. If there was someone we could find out what links people click on AFTER they search for "MLS", that'd be a much better indicator.
let's be realistic... people are more interested in real estate in this country than professional soccer. try not to kid ourselves.
Top 10 Countries interested in "Major League Soccer" 1. United States 2. Canada 3. United Kingdom 4. Austria 5. Mexico 6. Australia 7. Brazil 8. Spain 9. Germany 10. Italy I am suprised Mexico isn't a little higher. I suspect that it will move up the list with the FMF/MLS Interliga.
The fact that the cities where Google searches were most likely to include the term "MLS" are all Canadian suggests that most of those searches didn't involve Major League Soccer. The other problem for using this method to compare popularity is that people often search for a topic because they don't know much about it. For example, in 2005, it looks like Google searches from Chile were more likely to include "DC United" than American searches. I'm guessing that most of those searches were from people who wanted info on U. Catolica's Sudamericana opponent.
Top 10 Cities for "Major League Soccer" 1. Winnipeg, Canada 2. Salt Lake City, UT, USA 3. Columbus, OH, USA 4. Washington, DC, USA 5. Houston, TX, USA 6. Reston, VA, USA 7. Cambridge, MA, USA 8. Boston, MA, USA 9. Denver, CO, USA 10. St Louis, MO, USA Some of those cities don't even have a team in the area.
Top 10 Regions for Freddy Adu 1. Norway 2. UK 3. Portugal 4. Denmark 5. Ireland 6. United States 7. Sweden 8. Netherlands 9. Belgium 10. Canada Freddy Adu to Norwegian League?
Well it only took me a few minutes to think of this one. There are 6 countries looking for more porn than the US. I'll let you do this one yourself. Pretty interseting though. Good find.
I'm not surprised Austria is high on the list. The Salzburg fans are following RBNY a lot now for obvious reasons, just as we've become very interested in our sister team in Austria as well.
Landon Donovan: 1. Austin, TX, USA 2. Los Angeles, CA, USA 3. San Francisco, CA, USA 4. Irvine, CA, USA 5. Washington, DC, USA 6. New York, NY, USA 7. Houston, TX, USA 8. Chicago, IL, USA 9. Mexico City, Mexico 10. Atlanta, GA, USA
Having marketed my family's real estate business online for 10 years now - I can assure you that at least half of these "MLS" searches are referring to real estate - probably more. That is a highly competitive search word/term in the real estate world. Perhaps try just team names or "soccer"..?
Top cities searching for a "new back four" 1. Los Angeles, California Top cities searching for a "new coach" 1. New York, New York (haha) Top cities searching for a "penalty kicker" 1. Columbus, OH Top cities searching for "gay sex" 1. Birmingham, United Kingdom I'm just sayin'
Top 5 for "bigsoccer" 1. Vancouver, Canada 2. San Francisco, CA, USA 3. New York, NY, USA 4. Los Angeles, CA, USA 5. London, United Kingdom
DC UNITED vs WASHINGTON WIZARDS vs WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs WASHINGTON REDSKINS vs WASHINGTON NATIONALS United States : 1. Washington Nationals 2. Washington RedSkins 3. DC United !!! 4. Washington Wizards 5. Washington Nationals http://www.google.com/trends?q=dc+u...,washington+nationals&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all
MLS vs. Australian A-League DC United vs Sydney FC DC United vs Saprissa MLS vs FMF Kansas City Wizards vs New England Revolution LA Galaxy vs Chivas USA Kansas City Soccer vs Philadelphia Soccer