HD DVD search traffic clobbers Blu-ray’s in HD DVD vs Blu-ray war
By Matt Jansen
Blu-ray has been gaining momentum in the exclusive content arena, but what are people interested in reading about? Judging based on historical and current search trends, HD DVD wins that race hands down.
Google holds the keys to best understanding what people are searching for on the Internet so that’s where I started.
Type in “blu ray” (or “blu-ray”) in a Google Trends search, and this is what you’ll see:
The searching begins three quarters of the way through 2004 and slowly trends upward to peak at the end of 2007.
Perform a similar search for “hd dvd” and this graph slides into place:
More steep hills and valleys correlate with activity from the press and may point toward a concerted marketing effort championed by Toshiba and Microsoft.
Comparing the two brings a couple of things into sharp focus. HD DVD has been a topic of interest for a lot longer than Blu-ray and has continued to command a significantly larger search volume than Blu-ray until very recently.
Adding in Toshiba and Sony adds some perspective to the numbers:
HD DVD is certainly at a critical fork in its lifecycle but the search traffic asset these trends illustrate is no small thing.
But, here’s the amusing and intuitively accurate truth. DVD is still king. Take a look:
Though DVD search traffic is trending downward, the HD DVD and Blu-ray trend lines are almost flat in comparison, with a small bump at the end of 2007.
Until high definition TV in general can pull more interest from mainstream consumers, adoption will continue to be lackluster. Many may choose to skip the next generation disc format entirely and wait for compelling video delivery via the Internet solutions.
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Stumble It!
February 6th, 2008
Very interesting!
February 6th, 2008
I search Google every day for HD-DVD to see who has dropped it lately.
The latest to drop HD-DVD:
Woolworth
Imation/TDK
Saturn (German electronics retail giant)
National Geographic
Onkyo
February 6th, 2008
test
February 6th, 2008
If you still think it will help HD DVD, don’t hold your breath. Most people could see HD DVD was’nt worth it from day one. It was a destined niche market from scratch. No one I know, nor any media hosts I heard on the subject, was interested in it. It was destined to fail from day one.
Blu-Ray, then Teradisc. The writing was on the wall. I never did understand why HD DVD supporters were backing it on the net. I guess they must have been stock holders.
February 6th, 2008
The guy (Matt Jansen) just needs a little tutoring in how to use Google Trends. But I would suggest going to the “About Google Trends” page, and RTFMing a bit before making a public fool of one’s self. Just a thought…
February 7th, 2008
Terrible post.
Use the proper hyphenation of blu-ray and hd-dvd and blu-ray comes out substantially ahead.
“blu ray” is a much more specific search than “hd dvd”. The latter probably includes all kinds of searches like “dvd upconverting hd”, “hd dvd wars”, “good dvd buy for hd television”, etc.
February 7th, 2008
I dunno but i tpe both in to see news everyday. Everybody where i live that has Hdef media it is there xbox 360 hd dvd addon. Noone i know has a bluray player or PS3. I only know of me and a friend that have hd dvd. The PS3 is strongly hated around here.
February 7th, 2008
You safely avoid stating the conclusion that ‘interest in’ equates to a ‘favorable’ interest in HD DVD, but that conclusion seems implied. Could it be possible that people searching for “hd dvd” are simply (1) trolling for any news on the format war, since it is the general term describing the subject, as well as a specific format, (2) watching for news on the demise of the format (so it is ‘negative interest’ in the wellbeing of HD DVD), or (3) know how to spell HD DVD and are uncertain about the spelling of BlueRay, Blu-ray, BleauRade, etc.?
February 7th, 2008
Jesus christ, the Blu ray supporters are rabid even at the slightest notion of anything positive for HD DVD.
February 7th, 2008
@Mike, Hopefully you weren’t counting the people, like myself, who posted in the interests of accuracy in your rather sweeping accusation? Unless you consider accuracy of information and analysis of it’s meaning as bias. Anyone who takes anything positive or negative from bad information is clearly being decieved, and if you run the corrected Google trends search I suggested you’ll see that whilst both formats have peaks of interest, overall they’re pretty even. No bias here, at least.
As an aside, some might say that accusing people of being rabid Blu Ray supporters could be, in itself, an indication of fanboyism. But not me. No sir, I’d never say that.
February 7th, 2008
OK, rules for not making a public fool of yourself in comments:
Make a _useful_ comment on how to improve the search, like Ray did, rather than just insulting the article’s author but adding no value, like Ted did.
We don’t really need your “thoughts”, Ted.
February 7th, 2008
Who cares what people are searching for?! As far as I’m concerned, I check to see which companies have dropped HD-FUD on its ass lately, what desperate measures they have taken this week to prolong its inevitable death, etc.
Blu-ray is kicking HD-DUD’s butt on a weekly basis in sales. Accept it and stop trying to find solace in frickin search trends!
February 7th, 2008
Don’t you know why? Because, all us BLU Heads are searching if Paramount & Universal have switched yet. No one will buy their movies until they do. Not even on DVD.
February 7th, 2008
I search Google for HD DVD to see how bad it is doing and whos the latest to drop them. Also, the problem with Blu-ray is theres so many ways to spell is, ‘Blu-ray’ is only the correct way.
February 7th, 2008
This is flawed look at the trends for Blu-Ray vs. HHD-DVD, etc. etc.
February 7th, 2008
This is flawed but HD-DVD could clinch it anyway as early adopters check on the state of affairs wit their early Players only medium. if you had droped $300+ on a box that is soon to become useless (practicaly as no new disks will be made after a while) then youd probably be checking frequantly in the hope the tide will change.
February 7th, 2008
search google for google zeitgeist results and you wil see HD_DVD kicked the crap out of blu-ray searches in 2007 . straight from google .
February 7th, 2008
HD-DVD… the best…
February 7th, 2008
@Ray Von
Either format winning ultimately won’t effect me, neither will your being an asshole.
February 7th, 2008
@Ray Von
Either format winning ultimately won’t affect me, neither will your being an asshole.
February 7th, 2008
@Mike, Hopefully you weren’t counting the people, like myself, who posted in the interests of accuracy in your rather sweeping accusation? Unless you consider accuracy of information and analysis of it’s meaning as bias. Anyone who takes anything positive or negative from bad information is clearly being decieved, and if you run the corrected Google trends search I suggested you’ll see that whilst both formats have peaks of interest, overall they’re pretty even. No bias here, at least.
As an aside, some might say that accusing people of being rabid Blu Ray supporters could be, in itself, an indication of fanboyism. But not me. No sir, I’d never say that.
You just typed a hell of alot more words than me, sorry but your a fanboy, whereas I truly don’t give a fig about which format wins. You just proved my point for me.
February 7th, 2008
I have both players (plus an Oppo 981) and I’ve been searching for places blowing out HD DVDs.
FWIW.
February 7th, 2008
hell not this bullshit again!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 7th, 2008
Sorry Ray Von, but in my experience on the internet wordy more often than not equals fuckwit. Now put your thesaurus away and go to bed.
February 7th, 2008
use google suggest to get the numbers. Google ’suggest’.
Add up all the spellings of Blu-ray and all the spellings of hd dvd to get real numbers:
blu-ray: ~58M
hd dvd: ~47M.
February 8th, 2008
sounds about right. bluray’s hype is that alone. hype. especially given the fact most br players are the ones in the ps3 while the standalone players are being clobbered by hd dvd players. the fact the bda was claiming “victory” in the format wars after only 1 month on the market really underscores their desperation. It’s no coincidence the BDA is counting the free br movies bundled with players and the ps3 as “sales”. their trying to create hype and interest in something that is obviously going to fail. sorry br zealouts, this war is faaaaaaar from over. i wouldn’t take too much stock in the br fanboys as formats have never been dictated by toys (ps3) or children (br/ps3 zealouts). never will.
February 11th, 2008
Blu will win coz blu is awzome. hD is suxxorz
February 11th, 2008
This page suxxorz, go blu