Staying in is the New Going Out
One of the trends that we have seen as the recession has deepened is that consumers are economising on going out and increasingly making the most of the social and entertainment opportunities of the web. This is something that people on the street we spoke to agreed with. We have seen these trends emerge using a number of free tools that we have, such as Google Insights for Search, that allow us and you to glean insight into consumer interests and search patterns over time.
For example, in the past searches for 'recipes' usually only overtakes searches for 'restaurants' at certain times of the year, such as at Christmas, but recently we have seen people consistently searching more for 'recipes' than for 'restaurants'. In the context of the recession, this interest in home cooking rather than eating out implies that people are being careful about managing their costs.
Cooking is just one area we are seeing a renewed interest. The popularity of online gaming is evident from the number of results you can find on Google Blog Search and YouTube. Using Insights for Search you can see that there is a rise in searches for 'free online games' every weekend, when more consumers are at home looking for entertainment.
We'd like to share these and other insights in a presentation you can download, Staying in is the New Going Out (PDF). Hopefully these insights will give you inspiration to find other trends using Google Insights for Search! If you find other interesting trends or have suggestions for other topics to explore please email us. If you'd like more stats on the rise of Internet entertainment and the trends in consumer behaviour online, have a look at this booklet, Speeding up in the Slowdown (PDF).
If you're interested in seeing hot searches as they happen add the Google Insights for Search gadget to your homepage. Read more about the gadget and how it can be useful on the Conversion Room blog.