Page 29 - Decoding Decisions ~ Making sense of the messy middle

29 CHAPTER 3 INVESTIGATING THE MESSY MIDDLE

However, appearances can be deceiving. When we look at the kinds of
queries that contain these modifiers, we begin to see some revealing
patterns. In the 2000s we didn’t search for free everything. For the most part,
we wanted free entertainment: games, music, and movies (figure 2).

Figure 2

free games free music free movies
Search term Search term Search term
100

75
SEARCH INTEREST 50

25

0
2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

Declining UK search interest for entertainment queries containing “free”.

As we fast forward through the past 16 years, the relative volume of
entertainment searches containing “free” gradually diminishes and today,
in 2020, the frequency of these expressions is far lower in relative terms.

The demise of “free” is partly a story about our changing search behaviour
but, of course, we can’t forget that it’s also a reflection of how new platforms

and streaming services have changed the entertainment industry. In 2004
there was no YouTube (founded 2005), no Spotify (founded 2006), Netflix was
still a DVD sales and rentals business (it didn’t offer streaming until 2007),
and there was no App Store (launched 2008).

Data source: Google Trends, United Kingdom, 1st January 2004–1st January 2020, All categories, Web Search