Google offers an online, free service that shows trends in searches for key words.
For example, this is the link for a report on searches for the key phrase fishing kayak:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=fishing+kayak&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
Interestingly, this report shows that Jacksonville, Florida is the world capital of kayak fishing:
| Jacksonville, FL, USA |
| Pensacola, FL, USA |
| Honolulu, HI, USA |
| Tampa, FL, USA |
| San Diego, CA, USA |
| Orlando, FL, USA |
| San Antonio, TX, USA |
| Houston, TX, USA |
| Norfolk, VA, USA |
The report also shows that the number of Google searches for this phrase is seasonal, and has remained steady since 2005:
However, when it comes to states, Hawaii leads, and Florida comes second:
| Hawaii, United States |
| Florida, United States |
| Texas, United States |
| Rhode Island, United States |
| Louisiana, United States |
| Alabama, United States |
| South Carolina, United States |
| Maine, United States |
| North Carolina, United States |
Pretty amazing! I would have thought that California leads.
Bob
Nice catch!
I did the same thing for “kayak fishing” and the results correspond almost perfectly with the results for “fishing kayak”. Too bad they don’t give absolute numbers.
Mike
I see the data, but what does it all mean?
FW
Typical of a market that has peaked and reached maturity.
Pete
The report indicates a steady level of interest in recent years in kayak fishing as a sports activity, and in fishing kayaks as products. From all the hype around kayak fishing I would have expected the figures to show a strong upward trend, which they clearly don’t.
G.R.
And here are the results for “kayak”:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=kayak&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
It seems like the 2004 and 2008 Olympics made people search more.
In any case, no real growth in the numbers.
Mike
Searches for “kayak” are not the same as searches for “fishing kayak”, as far as states and cities are concerned.
QS
The hits with Google don’t really surprise me. The Jacksonville area has lots of areas to fish with a kayak and most are very accessible. Most places don’t even have a launching fee and those that do are state parks with a 3 dollar gate fee for the park itself.
Compared to even five years ago we are awash in kayak dealers and places that sell them. When you talk with folks at the tackle store or department virtually everyone has an interest in kayak fishing. It’s easy, trouble free, requires no fancy tow vehicle, and the clean up after saltwater trips is a snap. Although the best part is listening to the sales folks selling the different boats. Nobody mentions a sore back it the conversation yet when people get on the water after only a short time they are out stretching…
A fellow kayak fisherman asked just out of the blue how come I could throw a lure so far and what was the secret. I told him one big factor is my position in the W boat. He is trying to throw just using his arms while laid out in his sit on top. However in the W I’m braced up in a second and using my whole body to launch the lure out of the boat. I know I keep mentioning this but the difference in casting power is quite dramatic
Bottom line is as always Wavewalk has the boat best all around suited for fishing right now using a paddle. I would love to see it go head to head in a fishing kayak comparison. It would smoke the other boats.
–Jeff
The Jacksonville FL area benefits from another, probably as important factor: Mike Kogan, who founded and organized the Jax Kayak Fishing Club – a big success, and a model for the whole country.
The Jax Classic he organizes every year attracts hundreds of participants, and it’s the world’s biggest kayak fishing tournament.
As for these Google search reports, it’s hard to know exactly what they mean, but they do seem to indicate a state of maturity in this market. This means that Wavewalk’s success can be attributed to an improved market penetration rather than just riding the rising tide of interest in kayak fishing.
In other words, people today tend to see our W kayak more as a proven, useful concept rather than as an ‘intriguing innovation’ it was seen to be a few years ago, right after we had introduced it.
Yoav
Just how important is Google search compared to Yahoo, msn and all the other search websites out there?
April
Google is by far the dominant search engine in the US, Yahoo is secondary, MSN is marginal, and all the others are insignificant.
The Internet has become pervasive in recent years, and the great majority of US households have some kind of fast Internet connection that enables running fast and efficient online searches.
Yoav
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
I think that most people realize by now that the promise of kayak fishing has its limits, and these limits are set by the low level of comfort and poor stability that SOT kayaks can offer, regardless of size, brand and model.
Kayak fishing is a great idea, but only if you fish from a wavewalk.
Marco
Another myth busted HA HA HA!
Good job wavewalk!
Warren
Interesting. I couldn’t find this kind of information and discussion anywhere else.
Gao
I just tried to run a new trend search today, and the result Google returned was ‘not enough data’.
This could explain why the annual graph changed from the time I posted it.
Yoav