
Why Things Become Unpopular - mixmax
http://www.physorg.com/news163333282.html
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mynameishere
Test it yourself

<http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager>

I think the next bubble to burst is any name starting with QU

[http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=QU&ms=false...](http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=QU&ms=false&sw=f&exact=false)

...just like happened to the letter "D" back in the 1950s

[http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=D&ms=false&...](http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=D&ms=false&sw=f&exact=false)

Also, I don't like where this is going. Just getting started with the
parabola,

[http://google.com/trends?q=4chan&ctab=0&geo=all&...](http://google.com/trends?q=4chan&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

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youngj
Explain this:
[http://google.com/trends?q=uggs&ctab=0&geo=all&d...](http://google.com/trends?q=uggs&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

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mixmax
Since uggs is a winterboot it's pretty obvious that it will be searched for in
winter time. If you take this into account the graph shows a slow and steady
increase in uggs searches.

Interestingly it seems that uggs are more popular in the northern hemisphere
since there are not a lot of searches in what is the northern hemispheres
summer and the southern hemispheres winter.

Accorindg to the theory they should have a good chance at making a valuable
brand, since their growth is slow but has been increasing over the last four
years.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugg_boots>

~~~
Erf
There are also a lot more humans in the northern hemisphere.

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imp
This seems to be extrapolating a lot from the original results. The study was
done only on baby names. When you name a person, you have to consider the
effect it will have on the person's whole life. So it makes sense to avoid
names that are trendy. They'll sound stupid 50 years from now. I don't think
people evaluate social networks or other products the same way.

~~~
slpsys
I'm also confused by their own summary: "According to the results, the quicker
a cultural item rockets to popularity, the quicker it dies. This pattern
occurs because people believe that items that are adopted quickly will become
fads, leading them to avoid these items, thus causing these items to die out."

That seems to me to describe the psychology of non-adopters, not peak adopters
who drop the service/item quickly.

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mike_organon
Yes, and they are also assuming that sudden popularity _causes_ the sudden
unpopularity. If the trend they describe is true and common, it might be
because the large number of people who follow fads quickly don't stick with
them for long, while things of real quality take longer to be accepted, but
are worth keeping around. Therefore, the conclusion and advice should be to
make a high-quality product.

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GeneralMaximus
So what does this mean for, say, Twitter or the iPhone?

~~~
Ardit20
Well in the 90's everyone adopted the internet quickly but it hasn't died yet.
So I guess there are trends and stable products.

