Yesterday, I ran across this entry over at The App Gap blog. I found this blog through a link in the Synch.rono.us blog which is run by members of the Lotus Connections development team. In the first entry, Bill Ives provides a great tour and introduction into Lotus Connections. And since they like Lotus Connections, I like them! 
Google Search Insights
But I digress. You already know how I like to keep tabs on what the world is saying about Lotus Connections via Twitter. I do this by subscribing to the search results provided by Twitter's search service Summize. Now thanks to yesterday's post by Anita Campbell I have an additional way of keeping track of Lotus Connections popularity.
You see, Anita illustrates how you can use Google Search Insights to try and determine a product's popularity world wide. In her example, she compares Wordpress (a blogging platform) to AMember ( a membership site software ). After looking at the pretty screenshots, I decided to check how Lotus Connections fares across the world. So I did a search on "Lotus Connections" and here's what I saw (Google starts at a global level and then you can drill down by states/cities, etc)
Surprisingly, perhaps, is the fact that there's more interest in Lotus Connections in India than in the US. Does that mean that India is more open to social software ?
Looks like Europe is pretty well covered. Now, it definitely looks like we need to do more social software evangelizing in Latin America and Africa. You know how I blogged about my customer visits in Brazil and México? Check out the map, those are the only 2 countries in Latin America that show interest in the software. Not that I'm taking credit or anything...
Lotus Connections Vs The Competition
I then did a search for one of our competitors to see how well they fared. I thought, if Africa and South America are also "empty" then it's most likely an issue of adoption in those continents. Now, if they are not empty, then it probably means that the Lotus team needs to start doing more marketing in those continents. And here's what I saw:
I won't mention my competitors, but I'm sure you know who they are. This, however, tells me that it's clearly a marketing thing. So for my fellow readers in South America and Africa, let's start marketing social software there. And if you need help, you know how to find me!!
Want to try this Google tool out? Go ahead and check out Google Search Insights.