[R] Popularity of R, SAS, SPSS, Stata...

Sat Jun 26 17:07:21 CEST 2010

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Joris Meys [mailto:jorismeys at gmail.com]
>Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 10:10 PM
>To: Muenchen, Robert A (Bob)
>Cc: Dario Solari; r-help at r-project.org
>Subject: Re: [R] Popularity of R, SAS, SPSS, Stata...
>
>>>I had taken the opposite tack with Google Trends by subtracting
>> keywords
>>>like:
>>>SAS -shoes -airlines -sonar...
>>>but never got as good results as that beautiful "X code for" search.
>>>When you see the end-of-semester panic bumps in traffic, you know
>> you're
>>>nailing it!
>>
>> I have to eat those words already. The "R code for" search that
showed
>a
>> peak every December did not have quotes around it, so it was
searching
>> for those three words not the complete phrase. When you add the
>quotes,
>> the peaks vanish.
>
>Don't swallow! You're looking through search terms, not through web
>pages. R code for regression, regression code R etc. are all valid
>searches, no quotation marks needed.

I wondered why those clear peaks had vanished when I added quotes.
Here's one that combines the search terms without the quotes. It shows
several March/April & October/November peaks: 

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=r%20code%20for%2Br%20manual%2Br
%20tutorial%2Br%20graph%2Csas%20code%20for%2Bsas%20manual%2Bsas%20tutori
al%2Bsas%20graph%2Cspss%20code%20for%2Bspss%20manual%2Bspss%20tutorial%2
Bspss%20graph%2Cstata%20code%20for%2Bstata%20manual%2Bstata%20tutorial%2
Bstata%20graph%2Cs-plus%20code%20for%2Bs-plus%20manual%2Bs-plus%20tutori
al%2Bs-plus%20graph&cmpt=q

I've been trying to make sense of Google Scholar searches. I'm obviously
missing something basic. Here are two searches on www.google.com:

sas - gets 68M hits
sas OR spss - gets 74.3M hits. A bigger number as "OR" would imply.

But when I do the same searches on scholar.google.com, here's what I
get:

sas - gets 4.6M hits
sas OR spss - gets 1.65M hits

How on earth can an "OR" get you less??

Thanks,
Bob

>
>http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=code%20for%20r%2Ccode%20for%20
S
>AS%2Ccode%20for%20SPSS%2Ccode%20for%20matlab&cmpt=q
>
>This one is nice too. You can see that the bump in the autumn semester
>for R is replacing the one for Matlab. Then in the spring semester
>Matlab stays high but R drops. And both the US and India always have a
>very large search index, whereas the rest of the world is essentially
>worthless. Which leads me to the conclusion that : 1) The results are
>probably coming from google.com, excluding local versions, and 2) in
>the US (and India), statistics is mainly taught in the autumn
>semester. Given the fact that daylight has a beneficial effect on the
>emotional well being, the impopularity of statistics is likely caused
>by unfortunate scheduling.
>
>Forget Excel. Google rocks! ;-)
>
>Cheers
>Joris
>
>>
>> Once you go the phrase route, you gain precision but end up with zero
>> counts on various phrases. I avoided that by combining them with "+"
>to
>> get enough to plot. The resulting graph shows SAS dominant until
>> mid-2006 when SPSS takes the top position, followed by R, SAS, Stata
>in
>> order:
>>
>>
>http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=%22r%20code%20for%22%2B%22r%20
m
>>
>anual%22%2B%22r%20tutorial%22%2B%22r%20graph%22%2C%22sas%20code%20for%2
2
>>
>%2B%22sas%20manual%22%2B%22sas%20tutorial%22%2B%22sas%20graph%22%2C%22s
p
>>
>ss%20code%20for%22%2B%22spss%20manual%22%2B%22spss%20tutorial%22%2B%22s
p
>>
>ss%20graph%22%2C%22stata%20code%20for%22%2B%22stata%20manual%22%2B%22st
a
>> ta%20tutorial%22%2B%22stata%20graph%22%2C%22s-
>plus%20code%20for%22%2B%22
>> s-plus%20manual%22%2Bs-plus%20tutorial%22%2B%22s-
>plus%20graph%22&cmpt=q
>>
>> This might be a good one to add to http://r4stats.com/popularity
>>
>> Bob
>>
>>>
>>>I see that there's a car, the R Code Mustang, that adding "for" gets
>> rid
>>>of.
>>>
>>>Thanks for getting me back on a topic that I had given up on!
>>>
>>>Bob
>>>
>>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>>From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org
>>>[mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
>>>>On Behalf Of Joris Meys
>>>>Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 7:56 PM
>>>>To: Dario Solari
>>>>Cc: r-help at r-project.org
>>>>Subject: Re: [R] Popularity of R, SAS, SPSS, Stata...
>>>>
>>>>Nice idea, but quite sensitive to search terms, if you compare your
>>>>result on "... code" with "... code for":
>>>>http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=r%20code%20for%2Csas%20code
%
>2
>> 0
>>>f
>>>>or%2Cspss%20code%20for&cmpt=q
>>>>
>>>>On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 10:48 PM, Dario Solari
>> <dario.solari at gmail.com>
>>>>wrote:
>>>>> First: excuse for my english
>>>>>
>>>>> My opinion: a useful font for measuring "popoularity" can be
Google
>>>>> Insights for Search - http://www.google.com/insights/search/#
>>>>>
>>>>> Every person using a software like R, SAS, SPSS needs first to
>learn
>>>>> it. So probably he make a web-search for a manual, a tutorial, a
>>>>> guide. One can measure the share of this kind of serach query.
>>>>> This kind of results can be useful to determine trends of
>>>>> "popularity".
>>>>>
>>>>> Example 1: "R tutorial/manual/guide", "SAS tutorial/manual/guide",
>>>>> "SPSS tutorial/manual/guide"
>>>>>
>>>>http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=%22r%20tutorial%22%2B%22r%2
0
>m
>> a
>>>n
>>>>ual%22%2B%22r%20guide%22%2B%22r%20vignette%22%2C%22spss%20tutorial%2
2
>%
>> 2
>>>B
>>>>%22spss%20manual%22%2B%22spss%20guide%22%2C%22sas%20tutorial%22%2B%2
2
>s
>> a
>>>s
>>>>%20manual%22%2B%22sas%20guide%22&cmpt=q
>>>>>
>>>>> Example 2: "R software", "SAS software", "SPSS software"
>>>>>
>>>>http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=%22r%20software%22%2C%22sps
s
>%
>> 2
>>>0
>>>>software%22%2C%22sas%20software%22&cmpt=q
>>>>>
>>>>> Example 3: "R code", "SAS code", "SPSS code"
>>>>>
>>>>http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=%22r%20code%22%2C%22spss%20
c
>o
>> d
>>>e
>>>>%22%2C%22sas%20code%22&cmpt=q
>>>>>
>>>>> Example 4: "R graph", "SAS graph", "SPSS graph"
>>>>>
>>>>http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=%22r%20graph%22%2C%22spss%2
0
>g
>> r
>>>a
>>>>ph%22%2C%22sas%20graph%22&cmpt=q
>>>>>
>>>>> Example 5: "R regression", "SAS regression", "SPSS regression"
>>>>>
>>>>http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=%22r%20regression%22%2C%22s
p
>s
>> s
>>>%
>>>>20regression%22%2C%22sas%20regression%22&cmpt=q
>>>>>
>>>>> Some example are cross-software (learning needs - Example1), other
>>>can
>>>>> be biased by the tarditional use of that software (in SPSS usually
>>>you
>>>>> don't manipulate graph, i think)
>>>>>
>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-
>>>>guide.html
>>>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>Joris Meys
>>>>Statistical consultant
>>>>
>>>>Ghent University
>>>>Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
>>>>Department of Applied mathematics, biometrics and process control
>>>>
>>>>tel : +32 9 264 59 87
>>>>Joris.Meys at Ugent.be
>>>>-------------------------------
>>>>Disclaimer : http://helpdesk.ugent.be/e-maildisclaimer.php
>>>>
>>>>______________________________________________
>>>>R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>>PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-
>>>>guide.html
>>>>and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>>______________________________________________
>>>R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-
>>>guide.html
>>>and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>
>
>
>--
>Joris Meys
>Statistical consultant
>
>Ghent University
>Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
>Department of Applied mathematics, biometrics and process control
>
>tel : +32 9 264 59 87
>Joris.Meys at Ugent.be
>-------------------------------
>Disclaimer : http://helpdesk.ugent.be/e-maildisclaimer.php