Google Data Shows Occupy Movement Is Losing Steam

If the number of Google searches is any indication, the Occupy Wall Street movement, which spawned offshoots in cities across the nation, appears to be losing steam.

An analysis of the number of searches done for Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Boston, and Occupy Los Angeles via the metrics provided by Google Trends shows a dramatic decline for searches for information on each movement.

See the Google Trends Data Here.

Inquiries went into a free fall after October 15, when the searches peaked for Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Los Angeles. Searches for Occupy Boston peaked on October 11.

While the data provided by a Google Trends analysis is starkly different from the scientific approach used by pollsters, it is nonetheless telling of public interest. Further, large percentage of Occupy protesters are from the digital age generation, and are quite likely to use Google to research the movement.

Google's own description of how its Trends feature works is described as follows:

Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results -- our Search Volume Index graph.

And while Google admits that the data is not scientific and subject to inaccuracies, it also suggests that it is a useful tool for matters as serious as the tracking of the flu across the globe.