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Google Trends: search for 'linux vs windows' increased since May 2025 (media.piefed.zip)
submitted 3 days ago by Sunshine@piefed.zip to c/linux@programming.dev
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[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 15 points 3 days ago

What's the y axis? No idea what "interest" means

[-] Whimsical418@aussie.zone 34 points 3 days ago

Probably correlated to search volume on Google, with 100% being the max on the chart 🤷

[-] governorkeagan_@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago

Pretty much this.

The values on the graph do not represent absolute search volume. Instead they are normalized, then indexed on a scale from 1-100. Each point on the graph is divided by the highest point, 100.See how the maximum points change again when we click + Add comparison and type in another topic, such as ketogenic diet.

Source

[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 9 points 3 days ago

Thank you for finding that and providing a source!

So there will always be 100 and always 0 and that can be 100 searches in that time period or 1 billion. It's not very useful unless you've seen absolute numbers, IMO.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 days ago

Which Google will never provide. Partially because it can give insight into their search algorithm, and partially because absolute values are not necessarily comparable when their algorithm changes over time.

[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

What does it have to do with algorithms? It's search terms. Unless the search terms are aggregated and guessed, algorithms shouldn't matter.

this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
291 points (99.3% liked)

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