"There are three types of lies - lies, damn lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain
To clarify this: Searches can be executed in many ways. For example, "Red Ring of Death" may be the number one search, but because it was not tagged with "Xbox 360" they didn't record it. They only recorded searches tagged with Xbox and 360 along with the other words. I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't bother tagging "Red Rings of Death" with "Xbox 360" because most people know it will yield results. Same with other search for example: "360 warranty extension." This would not register either. Nor would, "Nintendo console," "Sony console," "PS3," "Nintendo System," ect.
I'm not saying this doesn't show something of interest, but it's a pretty big leap to accept this as gospel considering the variety of searches executed on the internet. Also, I went ahead and checked out the sources for the search data. Interestingly, they gather it from your ISPs, and they do not have contractual agreements with ALL ISPs. So people with AOL may be searching for 360s and they get that data, but people with Comcast may search for nothing but PS3 and there goes the statistic. With such a tiny percentage difference, little things like this build up to make this sort of statistic next to worthless.
