News In Brief

For search engines, there’s nothing new about a New Year

Katharine Crnko Dec 23, 2010

Many of us will greet the New Year with champagne and a new set of resolutions for 2011. Some resolutions are specific to the times: get out of debt, pay off credit cards, put more towards savings.

But some resolutions are perennial — like the annual commitment to heath. Every year Americans vow to lose weight, to get more active, to clear their arteries of years of fast food and guilty indulgences – we’re serious, for real this time.

And here’s the data to prove it. Gizmodo.com used analytics to research the search volume for the word “gym.”

The chart looks like an EKG that measures the pulse of American interest in fitness. At the end of every year, searches for “gym” skyrockets as goal-setters search for ways to fulfill their resolutions.

There are smaller peaks, mostly at the on-set of the dreaded summer bikini season. But the huge spike always follows the year-end holidays.

–Image courtesy of gizmodo.com

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