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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: leaf on April 21, 2009, 09:05

Title: Using Google Insights to predict image market needs
Post by: leaf on April 21, 2009, 09:05

Lookstat (https://www.lookstat.com/) had an interesting blogpost about using Google Insights to predict image market needs.  The example used was weight loss (http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=weight%20loss&cmpt=q), giving pretty clear seasonal trends for that search term.

I haven't used Google Insights much before, but this seems like a very good use.

[LookStat Blog (http://blog.lookstat.com/2009/04/21/google-insights-for-search-microstock-and-weight-loss/)]

Title: Re: Using Google Insights to predict image market needs
Post by: donding on April 21, 2009, 09:23

That could be a very powerful tool. Even if it doesn't specifically apply to Microstock, I would think if people are Googling that term that stock agencies would be getting the same effect since the advertising as a buyer would be vital at that time.
Thanks for the info

Title: Re: Using Google Insights to predict image market needs
Post by: Rahul Pathak on April 21, 2009, 11:39

Thanks for posting, Leaf. Glad you found it useful. I think there's a ton of useful information to be gleaned.

Title: Re: Using Google Insights to predict image market needs
Post by: johngriffin on April 21, 2009, 14:59

i agree. that is a very handy tool. another one is http://search.twitter.com to see what images buyers are looking for.  type in "stock photo" and see what i mean. 

have you looked at google trends to see if there is anything useful to take away from that service for ms'ers

http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X

Title: Re: Using Google Insights to predict image market needs
Post by: melastmohican on April 21, 2009, 15:10

Unless there is an agency which is true marketplace, open and transparent to buyers and contributors we will not have knowledge about what buyers really need. Right know most agencies keep this knowledge for themselves. Some are showing which searches produces a sale but this is rather exception than rule. Betting on generic search engines is kind of like mimic our investing companies who did  not want to keep historic data for risk management and created formula which was based on current market performance of credit derivatives. When everything was going up there was a correlation :-) So I guess there must be some correlation with searches on Google but is it statistically significant?

Title: Re: Using Google Insights to predict image market needs
Post by: Rahul Pathak on April 21, 2009, 15:18

You raise a great point. This is a proxy and enables some inference but does not provide true transparency. I do think there's value and correlation and while this does show user search behavior, it doesn't show microstock buyer search behavior.

Thanks for the cautionary words.