CED0540 week 5 – Google Trends and Statistics Sites

This week we looked at Google Trends.  Google Trends is a cool way to quickly do statistical comparisons.  Our group compared NFL, NHL, and NBA.  This was a fun way to look at data.  Google Trends creates charts with the data, making it user friendly.

The other assignment was to compare statistical websites.  Our group chose to look up diabetes.  We compared two sites and it was amazing to me how different the data was presented.  One site was great for engineers or statistical people, however, the other site contains the same information but in a much better format.  I really like the CDC Center for Disease and Prevention.  I can find so many uses for this site.  It lists the information, and then there are so many different ways to narrow the results.  It also showed confidence level and standard deviation on some of the charts.  I found myself spending a lot of time on this site.

CED0540 week 4 - Bill Tancer and survey

This week we closed and complied our surveys.  I must admit I really like the use of the Internet when it comes to surveys.  Yuck, can you imagine creating and analyzing a survey without it.  I like Survey Monkey, but the free version does have its limitations.  Something to keep in mind.  Overall there really wasn’t anything surprising in our survey.  It did leave me wondering though, about what kind of people use animal daycares?  Who are those people?

Learning about Bill Tancer was interesting.  I found it even more interesting that I had never heard of him before this class, even though he seems to have left his mark in many different places.  I found his work interesting, but I little unnerving that someone can find out so much information with the right program and a little work.  I think it does open the door to errors, just like he himself stated with his couple of examples, if you don’t break down the data enough.  I think it’s good for examining Internet trends, but wonder how much value it has in other areas.