This article was originally published on Geektimes, a popular IT-themed website in the Russian segment of the Internet.
Google Trends, as you probably know, is a tool that can be used to compare different text queries and compose the results into charts. Many analytics use these data in their work. Video game developers, for example, use Google Trends to determine the popularity of different game genres or to choose the most appealing visual design. I, for one, suggest we conduct a little experiment to examine who works with what.
Our test subjects will be the following keywords: “Blender”, “Autodesk Maya”, “Autodesc 3ds Max” and “Cinema 4D”. These are the names of the most popular 3D graphics software solutions. To avoid confusions, Google Trends allows us to specify the area of interest for the keywords. We will be using areas such as “software”, “program” and so on.
Here, we have a very interesting result that demonstrates the correlation of the queries in the set timespan (the current year). This type of chart measures the popularity of the keyword on a scale from zero to 100 points: the closer value is to 100 points, the more popular the search query is. And here’s what our little survey shows:
- Blender is at the first place. Sometimes, this keyword even reaches the maximum value of 100 points.
- 3ds Max occupies the second place. Its top is 80 points.
- Autodesk Maya is the third, while Cinema 4D is only slightly behind it. Both programs lag significantly behind the first two.
This chart shows the popularity of the search queries on a global basis. There is, however, another type of chart that gives us an option to examine the preferences of the users based on their geographical location. And here, we’re in for a surprise. Let’s take a look at the second picture.
An unexpected outcome, isn’t it? The picture shows the world map colored in accordance with the user preferences. Blender and 3ds Max, as you can see, are the leaders while the others only account for a tiny fraction.
Interestingly, Blender is more popular stateside. Most of the North and South American counties prefer to use it. 3ds Max, on the other hand, leads in Eurasia. 3D artists from Russia, China, India and Middle East countries generally use 3ds Max, however, Blender starts to reclaim its positions as we approach the European side of the continent.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, was the picture of 3D software popularity brought to you with the help of Google Trends.
Link to the Google Trends survey.
Link to the original article.
