Gonzolabs

(For the introduction to this experiment, see the previous post.)

Goal:  Quantitatively describe the “Jenga Effect”, a meme that seems to have popped into existence just 4 years ago and radiated into several new cultural niches.

Results…

1.  A simple Google search.

“Jenga” = 934,000 hits. “Jenga effect” = 1060 hits. The top-ranked webpages are related to the Slate article about the “Jenga Effect” in architecture. The next is my own post about the “Jenga Effect” 2 days ago! This meme has certainly not saturated the Internet yet.

2. A search on Google News archive.

“Jenga”-related media coverage grows steadily to the present day, but “Jenga Effect” generates 0 (zero) hits in the Google News Archive!  Strange.

3. So what does Google Trends have to say about Web searches for “Jenga” over time?

Not much. There seems to be no obvious trend in Web searches related to “Jenga” since 2004.

4. How about using the new Google Insight search?

These two searches were performed:
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=Jenga&cmpt=geo
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=wii+jenga&cmpt=geo

There seems to be a strange annual cycle of searching for “Jenga”. It spikes in the summer months and dips through the winter. (Since when is Jenga a summer game?) And weirdly, Estonia emerges as the clear number 1 country interested in Jenga, followed by the UK. The US comes in 7th place, in spite of being the largest market for selling the game. Very odd indeed.

5. Finally, what about that geeky memetic tool, the Sucks/Rocks Index?

Really? Yes. You just take the ratio of the following Google search outputs:
“Jenga sucks” = 257
“Jenga rocks” = 646
And (646 – 257) / 257 = 151% net rock for Jenga.  Well, people do seem to like it.
Conclusion (so far):

We’ve established our memetic baseline. But what does all of this tell us (if anything) about the Jenga Effect meme?  Stay tuned for the next installment!