Google Trends

10/20/2007 9:19 PM EDT

Hi Jack,

My thoughts: "Embedded" keyword should be rather indirectly derived from searches like "iphone" or "portable mp3 players" or "robotic control system" etc. I think that most of the embedded products today are so metamorphosed into various forms for average consumer that "embedded" or "fpga" or "firmware" is a keyword that may be directly used rarely.
Also as programmers, we have learned to search not just "embedded program" because there is so much of cross-platform development tools that a "c program code " on any platform becomes more or less suitable for an embedded system.
Or a search for any kind of RTL code could be more revelant a trend than looking for search patterns on "FPGA", I guess.
So, the above results doesn't seem to be too surprising a fact for me!

I would rather suggest that we looked at "clustered" search trends like www.clusty.com (boy, they do not have the trends feature yet!) - hopefully getting better results. I am just waiting for "clusty labs" to add the trends feature [anyone listening?]
Least, I expect that any trends on embedded can be predicted accurately with the search done in any of these engines - because embedded spans such a broad variety that it may even be tough to get it clustered !

Regards,
Saravanan T S

10/22/2007 5:03 AM EDT

Hi Jack,

I rarely include 'embedded' or 'FPGA' or 'firmware' in a search, because I'm already searching deeper than that. Maybe there are more and more deeply-practicing firmware engineers now. So you might find an upswing in keywords like 'watchdog problems' or 'crappy debuggers'. After seeing the China High Tech Show last week, I bet you're missing the 'Worldwide Reality Check' if you're not following searches in Mandarin!

10/22/2007 11:24 AM EDT

Google Trends displays relative data. Thus, the data doesn't mean that the number of times "Embedded" is searched has decreased. It might have actually increased, but it has not kept pace with the total number of searches Google performs. The trend probably indicates that more and more non-technical people are using Google now than in 2004.

However, an interesting finding when giving Google Trends the term "Embedded" is that most of the searches for that term are coming from India.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=embedded

Erik

10/22/2007 11:30 AM EDT

Turns out they normalize the region rankings as well. So my previous statement about most searches coming from India isn't true.

10/22/2007 12:05 PM EDT

Might be a reflection on the drop in those interested in engineering as a career. Theoretically, our capitalist, market-based economy rewards the most 'important' careers with the most remuneration. I'm sure that many people, looking at the amount of time to become a good engineer vs. a good lawyer, financial advisor/officer, business 'expert' looks at this and says well if I'm going to spend 6 yrs in school (BA + masters in engineering, against law school & or MBA), why should I be so limited in getting payback. And it's not to say that those in other fields don't earn their money, but except for a few, how many lawyers affect peoples lives in general? Engineers in their careers affect people's lives much more with technology(Ipods, DVD's, CD's, etc.) than most lawyers, business leaders and the like. Probably only doctors and nurses affect more people directly, and with more consequence, than the average engineer.
How do we challenge the next generation to make a commitment to engineering? I don't know, but if we don't, we'll be back to 1957 and Sputnik again - except this time it will be India or China, not the Russians. As a matter of fact, just a couple of weeks ago, Mike Griffin, the NASA administrator was quoted as saying that the Chinese would probably beat the USA back to the moon. Aside from the national pride, this doesn't sound like the way to motivate people to make a contribution to a project, does it?

10/23/2007 9:53 AM EDT

Did anyone else notice that 'firmware' searches spiked at the end of each year so far? My theory is that that comes from people looking for updates for their new hardware.

10/29/2007 2:12 AM EDT

I think,during the course of the time the scope of "embedded" systems has expanded in all the directions. The people are not looking just for Embedded but searching for a specific topics subjects under it.The topics can be iTunes, iPod, Mobile OS, Automotive Electronics, Medical Electronics, Industrial Automation etc.
So, I look this trend in a positive way, that the people are having more knowledge about the "Embedded" and looking beyond this search keyword.

7/28/2008 2:11 PM EDT

My ten cents on the topic: "embedded" was often used describing reporters working with the troops during the aftermath of the invasion. Gradually they returned to their field bureaus, and the word is not used anymore.