Americans are a kind, caring people, right? If internet searches are a good measure of what people care about, then check out this chart from Google Insights:
There are four things you can learn from this one simple graphic:
- Every year when Thanksgiving rolls around, Americans experience a sudden upsurge of interest in the homeless
- There's a secondary bump in interest every April - tax season!
- Interest in the homeless is at its lowest during summer - until 2010 its lowest level has consistently been in August
- Overall interest in the homeless appears to have increased since the economic collapse
Where is the greatest interest in the homeless? Top five states by Google search:
- Hawai'i
- District of Columbia
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Washington
What else do you see in the statistics? What can we learn from these stats?
You can go much deeper into this data by place, time and search terms by going directly to Google Insights.