Re: pic: First Robotics Google Trend
 

My bet is that all you're seeing is a shift in the specific search terms that people use to research FIRST Robotics.

As evidence, I present the trend with respect to searches about the general topic of the FIRST Robotics Competition, representing the sum total of all search terms that Google associates with this subject:
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F096kcy



In this graph, I find it interesting that the summertime dip in interest has generally gotten deeper over time, whereas the dual build-season and competition-season peaks have gone through a bit of a cyclic trend with 2010 as the worst year and older+newer years doing better.

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EDIT:
And yes, you can definitely see the effect of that university in Switzerland when you look at the national distribution chart!

Re: pic: First Robotics Google Trend
 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B70J...p=docslist_api
Just to add to this, the search term "robotics" has a similar pattern, but to a lesser degree. It seems to dip in the summer compared to the rest of the year. First might have an effect on the robotics search term as well.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B70J...p=docslist_api.

Re: pic: First Robotics Google Trend
 

I wonder how many of these are internal people doing searches for FIRST official stuff because it is easier than going through the maze that is usfirst.org.

Re: pic: First Robotics Google Trend
 

Far too many.

Re: pic: First Robotics Google Trend
 

The declining overall interest could possibly be a result of how STEM is prevalent in the news and in education lately, making FIRST less groundbreaking. But I think that the increase in teams should show some results. Outreach may actually be a problem though...