Tool Trends

This morning we took a break from our usual routine and focused instead on playing around with Google’s “trend” service. Google Trends allows you to compare the search volume for different search terms with respect to time. Below are a few comparisons that we found to be interesting.

Before you read on, note that you should take Google Trend’s results with a grain of salt since it does not take into account any factors other than the search terms and the designated geographic region and time frame. For example, “Craftsman tools” cannot be reliably compared to “Bosch tools,” for obvious reasons.

Following are a few of the comparisons that we looked at.

Bosch vs. Milwaukee vs. Makita vs. Craftsman vs. Dewalt tools. Here is a link to the Trend.

Made in the USA vs. Made in China. Here is a link to the Trend. It’s good to see that more people are searching for “made in the USA” these days.

Craftsman vs. Harbor Freight. Here is a link to the Trend. Again, this is not entirely a fair comparison, but the increasing volume for searches of “Harbor Freight” is interesting to note.

You can also look up trends for individual search terms, such as “cordless tools.” From the cyclic patterns, you can see that search volume for this term peaks during the fourth quarter every year. Higher search volume likely corresponds to higher sales volume, which sometimes suggests better deals and sales.

Home Depot vs. Lowes. Link to Trend.

If you try this out for yourself, please feel free to share with us any search terms or comparisons that you find to be interesting.

Google Trends