What does Google Trends tell us?

Google Trends is quite interesting to play around with to see how different search terms have been used within Google. For example, I looked at eLearning as compared with Knowledge Management...




You can see that eLearning and Knowledge Management have both been trending downward in searches. Does that imply something as is suggested in: Organic KM: KM Is Losing Steam - Evidence From "The Database Of Intentions" ?

I'm not so sure that you can directly jump to the conclusion that interest in these topics are waning. Rather, I think with both Knowledge Management and eLearning the conversations have shifted as they've become more day-to-day kinds of concerns. On the other hand, I do think you can glean interest in other topics such as:



Which to me seems like a fairly accurate depiction of the interest that I've heard at conferences over the last few years.

Keywords: eLearning Trends