GM received a tip from reader and neighbor, Michael Garawski, about the nifty things you can see when you plug Georgetown-related terms into the Google Trends engine. For those unfamiliar, this program allows you to type in a search phrase and see how many people have searched for the term over time.
For instance, when you search for “Georgetown – Neighborhood in DC” you get this chart:
What you see is a steadily declining rate of searches from 2004 to early 2010. But then it rocketed up in July 2010. Guess what happened that month? DC Cupcakes debuted. GM has always wondered why the reality show based on Georgetown Cupcake wasn’t just called Georgetown Cupcake. Despite this decision, it seems pretty clear that people were able to make the connection from the show to the neighborhood.
That second peak a little doesn’t quite match up with the debut of the second season of the show (which started a few month before) but perhaps some credit can be given to the show.
The interesting thing is if you just search for “Georgetown”, you get a different chart:
It also is a generally downward trending line, but the peaks have a different explanation. The first one is March 2007: the last time the Hoyas made the Final Four.
The other two peaks also relate to GU. The first lines up with the infamous brawl between GU mens basketball team and a professional Chinese team in August 2011. The second lines up with GU’s March 2013 early round loss to Florida Gulf Coast.
This all suggests that to the larger world, Georgetown is more synonymous with the school (and even more: the basketball team) than the neighborhood.
The steadily declining trend, though, got GM wondering, does this reflect the fall from grace the neighborhood has suffered as other neighborhoods have risen in reputation? To test it, GM charted Georgetown below (in blue) against Dupont Circle (yellow), U St. (green), Logan Circle (red) and Shaw (purple).
Georgetown is still much more popular a search term than the other neighborhoods. But the other neighborhoods (except Dupont) appear to be gradually gaining, albeit at an awfully slow rate.
So while all the buzz has moved east, the Google searches still haven’t. That’s something to keep us warm as yet another ten awesome restaurants open up in Shaw.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
“This all suggests that to the larger world, Georgetown is more synonymous with the school (and even more: the basketball team) than the neighborhood.”
Ironic, then, that there remains such a vocal contingent of residents who view the University – and its various affiliated individuals – as little more than interlopers despoiling the “small scenic village.”