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Comment by mgkimsal | Hacker News Reader

people don't need to search for rails info as much, because they already know what they need and/or go directly to the source? google trends is showing what people are searching for, which isn't necessarily what's being used the most (though likely there's a correlation).

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Your argument is completely symmetrical -- you can just substitute "django" in place of "rails" and it still makes sense. As such, it does not explain anything.

I think his logic is right, but the premise might not be true. I believe that many people still googling docs and answers even though they know the exact location they are. Google (or search) is just quicker.

That's what I meant. Reasoning that something is searched for less frequently, because people know where to find it and do not need to search for it, is valid -- I just do not see (and the poster I replied to did not explain) how this applies only to Rails and not to Django. Had he referred to specific attributes of Rails, that make people not need to search for it, it would be plausible. Alas, he did not.

I think it is the poster mean - it is not sufficient to show which framework has more user by looking at google trend, that applies to both rails and django. Though I think Google trend and number of user is causal relationship.

It might explain the trend. Just because you can substitute nouns doesn't mean that the conclusion I'm drawing is wrong.

I don't think my explanation is correct, FWIW, but I'm not sure there's much you can draw just using a google trends chart anyway. It's not measuring usage (which is what the OP was presumably looking for information on), only searches.

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