Japan is the runaway global leader in interest for wikis and now the whole world can see that thanks to newly available research tools. Since 2004 Japan has held a forty point lead over its nearest rival in adjusted Google search volume for the term “wiki”. Singapore was a distant second. The United Kingdom comes in at number six and the United States at seven. New Zealand rounds out the list at number ten.
What does this mean for wiki fans?
In a nutshell, this “relative search volume” means that Japanese users of Google are three times as likely as U.S. Googlers to search for the term “wiki”. The United States did not even crack the top 10 until 2005 but it is moving up the list every year. If you are in the wiki business, try for a foothold in Japan but also keep an eye on markets rising up the chart such as the United States.
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Source: Google Insights search data on “wiki”


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