Is Bioinformatics dying a slow death?

[bbrij87]

Hello All,

I wanted to know if Bioinformatics is dying a slow death (in India particularly) as if you look from Google insights and Google searches, you will see a constant decline. You can refer to this post: [**redacted** -=ECO=-] [/URL]

[maubp]

Did you not like the answers here?

http://biostar.stackexchange.com/questions/10818/is-bioinformatics-on-decline-only-in-the-web-or-also-within-institutions/

And I see you're trying here too:

http://network.nature.com/groups/bioinformatics/forum/topics/9706

[vebaev]

Hello All,

I wanted to know if Bioinformatics is dying a slow death (in India particularly) as if you look from Google insights and Google searches, you will see a constant decline. You can refer to this post:

a nonsence....
I thing we have more important things to disscuss here and this is not one of them

[RDW]

Not so much:

http://genomebiology.com/2008/9/12/114

[rskr]

I wouldn't infer the relative proportion of google searches relative to Bioinformatics to indicate that fewer people are interested, as much as the internet is more accessible those who weren't interested in bioinformatics in the first place. Being as Bioinformaticians were some of the first adopters of internet technology, it would only stand to reason that the proportion of searches would go down as more lay searches are conducted. Do I recommend this as a field of endeavor, no.

[Michael.James.Clark]

First thing: That traveling Facebook/Twitter/G+/LinkedIn bar on your blog is super annoying.

Second thing:

I wouldn't infer the relative proportion of google searches relative to Bioinformatics to indicate that fewer people are interested, as much as the internet is more accessible those who weren't interested in bioinformatics in the first place. Being as Bioinformaticians were some of the first adopters of internet technology, it would only stand to reason that the proportion of searches would go down as more lay searches are conducted. Do I recommend this as a field of endeavor, no.

Bingo. While at first this seems generally interesting, looking at the information gathered from Google Trends and then trying to draw conclusions about those search terms as more than just words is actually pretty meaningless. Take a look at the spikes--they're usually due to a single NYT article with the word "bioinformatics" in the headline.

I mean, has Internet use become more widespread among the general public in India over the past seven years? If so, couldn't that be why? In fact, I think that's likely, as plugging in non-bioinformatics-related computational terms shows the same trend in India:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=programming&ctab=0&geo=in&geor=all&date=all&sort=0

http://www.google.com/trends?q=computational&ctab=0&geo=in&geor=all&date=all

http://www.google.com/trends?q=informatics&ctab=0&geo=in&geor=all&date=all&sort=0

http://www.google.com/trends?q=computers&ctab=0&geo=in&geor=all&date=all&sort=0

http://www.google.com/trends?q=engineering&ctab=0&geo=in&geor=all&date=all&sort=0

http://www.google.com/trends?q=C%2B%2B&ctab=0&geo=in&geor=all&date=all

http://www.google.com/trends?q=perl&ctab=0&geo=in&geor=all&date=all&sort=0

Just my take on it.

[Richard Finney]

Only if netcraft confirms.

[ECO]

Moving this to General, removing the links to your blog, and restraining myself from deleting it. The fact that you are an "internet marketer" and "SEO expert" means you're simply looking for inbound links.

For shame....

[tomc]

dying?
hopefully not before we have sequenced the troll genome ...
mods you show great restraint

[vebaev]

dying?
hopefully not before we have sequenced the troll genome ...
mods you show great restraint

+1


What a SEO expert probably his blog is dying and decline and hoping for some desperate incoming cliks

[NicoBxl]

In contrast troll isn't dying : http://www.google.com/trends?q=troll

[Bioderek]

From a recruiters perspective the answer is no. I am getting more bioinformatics roles than ever before.