Google Trends recently introduced enhancements, providing more numbers (for more information, see under Related Links below). As an avid American Idol watcher, I was interested to see the trends for the Top Two finishers -- David Cook and David Archuleta -- over the course of the competition. And the resulting graph is interesting, confirming my gut feeling on the relative interest in the two Davids as the competition wore on.

As American Idol reached the Top 12 and beyond, there was certainly the sense from observing those around me, and from reading internet forums that David Cook was gaining popularity.

The Google Trends graph on the right (click on picture to enlarge) confirms this, showing an upward trend in search volume for David Cook (the blue line) right up to the American Idol Finale.

The chart also shows interest in David Archuleta (the red line) peaked sometime before the Top 12 , basically plateauing until the Finale when there was a sharp spike in searches.

That seems to indicate that Archuleta's fans were gained early in the competition, with a relatively large number staying with him. Cook, on the other hand, gained fans throughout the competition, explaining his Idol win.

Another interesting observation is that the trends in volume of searches were basically independent of volume of reports in the media. Volume as tracked through Google News showed a steady upward trend right up to the finale (as shown by the bottom of the two graphs, ie the "News Reference volume" graph)

I'm wondering, with so much data now readily available through Google Trends, how that will impact how people and the media perceive the relative merits of the different contestants next season. For example, if this Google Trends data had been able for the past season, would that have mobilised Archuleta's fans, or would Cook have been perceived as the runaway winner? Any thoughts on this?

Of course, the graph for the last 12 months is no predictor of the future for the two Davids. So much depends on the strength of the individual releases and singles. And I'm really looking forward to both CDs from these two talented guys, to seeing what they come up with.

On an aside, it's been an interesting year for Idol guys, with a slew of great new releases from Josh Gracin, Phil Stacey, Chris Sligh, Clay Aiken, Jon Peter Lewis, and of course, later this year, David Cook and David Archuleta!