There’s more to remember from 2009 than the economy slowdown. Techrunch Co-Editor Erick Schonfeld quoted a very interesting chart showing that from a Google Trends point of view, « Augmented Reality » just passed « Virtual Reality » a couple of months ago.

Source : Google Trends

Actually, this Google Trends chart shows many different facts; let’s go through some of them.

1/ Augmented Reality is a hot topic. It has never been so hot in fact. The volume of search queries for augmented reality apps is one of the reasons for such a rise. But that’s not the only reason. James Cameron’s latest movie surely had a major impact.

2/ Virtual Reality has not passed away. The search volume index is slowly decreasing, but is still high enough to represent some users interest. Who knows if, in 5 years, virtual reality will be an old-fashioned experience or not ?.

3/ Major events (displayed with labels from A to F – B is covered by C) have pathed the way to « Augmented Reality » success. iPhone Apps launched in early october 2009, Dassault Systèmes 3DVIA agreement with Ars Electronica all contributed to this momentum.

Virtual Reality was a hot topic a few years ago. But as Erick Schonfeld judiciously mentionned, virtual reality apps like Second Life are just not enough « real ». Augmented Reality is just more real. Maybe Augmented Reality will help us now to do “First Life” ? What do you think ?