Terminology Watch: “webcomic” flattens
by Joey Manley
From Google Trends as of May 4, 2007: blue is “webcomics,” red is “webcomic,” and both are flattening out after a long rise in search frequency.
This is related to yesterday’s post, “Are All Comics Webcomics?” I think (see particularly Alexander Danner’s comments).
Seattle and Portland continue to be the main US cities where either of the terms is entered into Google (what is it with the Pacific Northwest?), but both are beaten out by Edmundton, Canada. (Note that the orange in the below chart is for the phrase “online comic,” which isn’t graphed in the chart above, but which has been in stead decline for years now).
May 4th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Halifax is number four. Represent, my people!
May 4th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
God, what I wouldn’t give to know more about what these charts MEAN! How much “search volume” does that chart represent? Is it a percentage of the total number of Google searches or a straight-up search number? Demographic data is balanced against population, right? It’s gotta be, because no way am I buying that New Zealand searches for more “webcomics” than the U.S.
It’s based upon a portion of their searches? What size a portion?
And why is it that the main chart hints at two intriguing spikes for “webcomics” in late 2005, but when I search by month it suddenly doesn’t have enough data to go on? TO GIVE ME AN ANEURYSM, THAT’S WHY.
Add “online comics” to the graph and the relationship between that term and “webcomics” looks different: http://www.google.com/trends?q=webcomics,+webcomic,+online+comic,+online+comics&date=all&geo=all&ctab=1&sa=N.
“Online comics” has been in decline for the past two years or so but it was still #1 of the four terms mentioned until late last year.
But here’s another question: what if that reflects not a flattening of interest in webcomics v. comics, but a flattening of interest in comics? Check this out: http://www.google.com/trends?q=comics%2C+comic&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all
Although the scale is much greater, the angle of descent is not entirely dissimilar.
Flattening isn’t freefall, of course. But I am a mite concerned that press interest continued to grow out of proportion to search interest, with a spike at San Diego ‘06, before a mysterious drop-off in late ‘06 (more likely, that’s as far as Google’s news-trend tracking goes… but if so it needs to mark that better).
Looking ahead, though, I think Alexander is right on the money. The argument over whether comics are “real” comics if they’re online just seems so cute and quaint now.
May 4th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I note in other searches that the same “mysterious drop-off” occurs for all news searches, apparently (LABEL IT, GOOGLE).
Right, back to work.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
I prefer “sequential art scanned into a computer and compressed in .gif format to minimize bandwidth.”
It really pares down my results.
But seriously, being a Western New York transplant to Portland, I think it’s neat to see Rochester, NY so prominently represented. Where is Buffalo?
May 4th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Looking at my own search stats – 30% used the words comic/comics/comix while less than 3% used “webcomic” in the process of looking for Magellan
May 7th, 2007 at 2:18 am
[...] Joey Manley tracks online usage of the term “webcomics.” Told you it was a slow news day. [...]
May 7th, 2007 at 9:58 am
This information can be interpreted in many ways.
For example, does this mean less new visitors are using the Google search engine to find webcomics because webcomics are somehow becoming less popular with the general public? Not necessarily.
Could this mean that more people are finding their webcomics through other means, such as links from other webcomics, comic referral sites, and other specific webcomic related websites? Could be.
If people are using a search engine less often for particular keywords, on the surface it only shows that people are using a search engine less often for particular keywords, not a drop in the general popularity of any given concept. I’m sure Google wouldn’t want you to know that
I think further analysis is needed, since everything I’ve heard from online sources over the past two years seems to indicate a growing interest in webcomics. How about traffic to webcomic sites?
May 7th, 2007 at 10:00 am
My sense is that webcomics are more popular than ever, but what people call them may be up for grabs. As Alexander noted, they may be so common and popular that they’re just called “comics” at this point. That’s all I was trying to get at with this research. But that conclusion isn’t necessarily supportable, either, of course.