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Post details: Which is bigger: the Isle of Wight or Rutland?

Which is bigger: the Isle of Wight or Rutland?

Regular readers will recall The Ranger's sensitive analysis of the thorny question of whether Rutland or the Isle of Wight was the smallest county in England. His conclusion, if you've forgotten, was that it was hard to tell, and probably didn't matter anyway.

Recently, another perspective on this question has come to light - and once more tidal forces of a kind seem to play a part.

Analysis from Google Trends

[More:]

Google Trends is a website that "provides insights into broad search patterns". What's more it's got data going back years: and above, one can see the relative importance to Google users of the county of Rutland (in red) and the Isle of Wight (in blue).

Intriguingly, it seems as though the Island has a very seasonal search pattern. Perhaps its strong tourist economy plays a part as the summer seems to be the peak time, and there's certainly a big spike round about June for the Isle of Wight Festival each year.

But poor old Rutland can only equal the Island when the 'tide of tourists' is right out, round about Christmastime. And if you fiddle with the figures (go to Google and try it if you like, it's quite easy) you can exclude America and thus the majority of the searches for Rutland which refer to 18 synonymous places in the USA. When you do that Rutland can't even register a quarter of the web traffic of the Island. So, which is 'bigger' now, eh?

2 comments so far, see them and add yours here!

Posted on 12th July 2008 at 12 55 am
by The Virtual Ranger
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Categories: Isle of Wight

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Comments:

Comment from: The Wildlife Gardener [Admin]

Wouldn't the IOW get smaller in tourist season with all those extra people standing on it pushing it further down into the sea? Then when they've all gone home it pops back up again to its original size....?

Permalink 12/07/08 @ 10:37

Comment from: pajamadeen · http://www.pajamadeen.com

If I was searching, I'd much rather search for the Isle of Wight, which is a delightful name, as opposed to Rutland. Who wants to go to Rut-land? It sounds hot and dusty and hard on the tires. Or tyres.

Permalink 13/07/08 @ 21:09

The thoughts and writings of The Virtual Ranger, since 1995 the host and mascot of Naturenet, the UK's most popular independent environmental website; along with interjections from his real-life alter ego, Matthew Chatfield, and others. Featuring not only Naturenet and countryside related stuff, but, as on Naturenet, plenty of other material - more or less at random - that takes The Ranger's fancy. But you can be confident that soon enough he'll be rather sarcastic.

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Post details: Which is bigger: the Isle of Wight or Rutland?

Which is bigger: the Isle of Wight or Rutland?

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