Bourbon To Overtake Scotch In Online Search Volume

Part of my day job involves helping companies identify and take advantage of shifting trends in the digital space. One of the tools I use is Google Trends. It allows me to research how search interest on certain keywords is trending over time so I can make more informed decisions for my clients. I thought it would be interesting to put together the graph below which illustrates how searches for “bourbon” compare to those for “scotch” over the last few years.

Per Google’s definition, “Each line represents the search interest relative to the highest point on the chart. If at most 10% of searches for the given region and time frame were for “pizza,” we’d consider this 100. This doesn’t convey absolute search volume.”

In other words, it’s a relative illustration of search volume. Not actual number of searches. In this case, it shows that historically there were more searches on scotch when compared to bourbon. But as you can see, in the last few years bourbon has caught up with scotch in terms of search popularity. In fact, if you look at the dotted lines, which represent Google’s forecast for future search volume, bourbon actually begins to overtake scotch in January 2014. About time, right?

As with most trend data from Google please don’t use this as a basis for any bets that involve cash or self-embarrassment. However, feel free to use it when bragging to your scotch drinking friends that bourbon is betting as much, if not more, action on Google.

Let me know if there’s anything else in the world of bourbon or whiskey that you’d like me to research for a future post.