April 16, 2012
#1043: Ablogalypse explain
[A line graph with four lines, each representing ‘Google Trends Search Volume’ of different search terms over time from prior to 2005 to just after 2012. A blue line represents “blog,” which trends gradually but significantly upwards from well before 2005 until it reaches a peak between 2008-2009, and starts to very slowly descend to today. A red line represents “Tumblr”, which is at zero until it slowly starts to trend upward in early 2010, and then sharply increases in late 2010 and through 2011 and 2012. As of the date of this comic, ‘blog’ still beats ‘Tumblr’ in terms of search volume, but a dotted line projection of the trend shows that on October 12, 2012, the two lines will cross. A yellow line represents ‘Wordpress,’ which has very low volume until a very small and gradual increase in 2007, which gradually increases to this day but doesn’t come close to meeting the volume of either ‘blog’ or ‘Tumblr’. A green line represents ‘LiveJournal,’ which started out prior to 2005 at around the level ‘Wordpress’ is at now, but declined through 2005 and 2006 until it has plateaued until virtually nothing.]
[Caption below the graph:]
In about six months, the word “Tumblr” will eclipse “blog” in Google popularity.
I doubt TV anchors will start talking about “reactions in the Tumblverse,” but then again, I still can’t believe we got them to say “blogosphere.”