Analyzing ‘Side Business’ trends with Google Trends

A few days ago, Google released Google Trends. Basically, this is tool that can help you analyze how many people searched for a given Search Term over time. Where it gets really valuable is that it provides the ability to display several results when the search terms are separated by commas. Of course, this not meant to be very accurate data, but is good enough for researching trends. I just wish you could at least get some ideas on the scale. It would not need to be super precise, but I would love to know whether I’m looking at 10s, 100s, millions, etc. You can get a sense of scale by using a keyword tool such as the one from Overture to get recent montly data. Since Overture does not include Google searches, a good rule of thumb is to multiply Alexa’s number by 3 to get Google’s numbers. (you are still within the same ballpark anyway).
They have data as far back as 2004 (so that’s about 2 and half year or so).

After testing a few general queries (try “google, yahoo” for example. It may not be the one you think on top. And since we are having fun, try to add msn to the mix), I figured it would be of interest to some of you to find out how “side business” compares with other terms.

The first one I tried was Side Business vs Home Business.

side business home business

Oops, clearly, no contest here. Clearly different playing field. Given the fact that most side businesses are done from home, the discrepancy is quite stunning. My best hypothesis so far: people may not think of it what they do at home as something “on the side”.

Then I refined my search parameters and found something quite peculiar. I compared “side business,sole proprietor, online home business, internet home business”.
side business sole proprietor online home business internet home bus…

One way to explain to explain the similarities, at least one that I find satisfying, is that an Online Business is a perfect business for a Side Business. It is something you can do from home, something you can do part time so that it won’t intefere with your regular job, and something that does not require a lot of initial investment. And finally, a sole proprietorship is the simplest business structure, and is a good way to get your feet wet without a big commitment.
What’s intriguing though, is the divergence in 2006. All 4 had been almost in locksteps for 2 years, and suddenly things start moving. And I have not come up with any explanation that makes any sense. I’m interested to hear if anyone has a theory.

Are you ready to start lifting that blue line upward?

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