Published: January 6, 2024
Kanshi Tanaike
Introduction
At Stackoverflow, a lot of people post questions and answers to the questions every day. There are various tags in Stackoverflow. A lot of discussions are performed at each tag. Their discussions bring important information and are very useful for a lot of people. As one of the tags, there is “google-apps-script”. I sometimes discuss the questions with that tag. When we see the discussions, we notice that the discussions have changed and progressed over time, because “Google Apps Script” which is the origin of the tag is updated. This report thinks this change is the trend of the tag of “google-apps-script”. This trend includes the number of questions, questioners, answerers, and tags added to the tag of “google-apps-script”. The trend of the tag of “google-apps-script” is deeply related to the progression of Google Apps Script and the various applications for Google Apps Script.
In this report, as one of several approaches, the trend of Google Apps Script was investigated by statistically analyzing all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script”. As a result, it was found that by investigating all questions with the tag “google-apps-script”, the tags added to this main tag strongly affected the trend of the tag “google-apps-script”. Also, the possibility can estimating the future trend by investigating the tags added to the tag of “google-apps-script” was indicated.
This report is 6th one. You can see from the 1st and 5th ones at Ref. 1 - 5.
Experimental procedure
At first, the history of Stackoverflow and Google Apps Script is confirmed. The following list shows the history of Stackoverflow and Google Apps Script.
- 2008-09-15: Stackoverflow was launched. Ref. 6
- 2009-08-19: Google Apps Script was released. Ref. 7
- 2011-08-29: Tag of “google-apps-script” was created in Stackoverflow. Ref. 8
- How to get help of the official document says “We use the popular programming Q&A website Stack Overflow to field technical questions.”.
From this list, it is found that the history of Stackoverflow is older than that of Google Apps Script, and also the tag “google-apps-script” in Stackoverflow is introduced by Google’s official document. These indicate that a lot of information about the history of Google Apps Script can be obtained from all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script” in Stackoverflow.
All questions and related data can be retrieved by a tag using Stack Exchange API. Ref. 9 In this report, “google-apps-script” was used as the base tag. All questions including the tag of “google-apps-script” at Stackoverflow were retrieved by the API, and the retrieved data from 2008-01-01 to 2024-01-01 was statistically analyzed. At Stackoverflow, users can edit old questions and answers. So please be careful that the data introduced in this report is the data that was obtained on 2024-01-03. The data used in this report was retrieved on 2024-01-03 at 15:26.
Results and discussions
About the details of each figure, please check Ref. 1. From this time, the updated data is shown.
Retrieved data
Fig. 1. Year vs. Total questions, answered, solved, and closed questions. These all questions include the tag “google-apps-script” in the tags.
Fig. 2. Year vs. a number of Questioners and Answerers. These all questions include the tag “google-apps-script” in the tags.
Fig. 3. Year vs. Kind of Tags and Kind of New Tags. Here, “New Tags” means the tags without duplicating for all years. For example, “google-sheets-macros” added in 2018 is not used from 2008 to 2017. It appeared in 2018 for the first time.
Fig. 4. Year vs. Number of questions for one answerer.
Fig. 5. Year vs. Increase rate of number of Questions for google-apps-script, javascript, python, go, node.js, php, ruby, and html tags. Namely, the slopes of each year in the blue dots in Fig. 1 are calculated for various tags.
Table. 1. New tags added from 2008 - 2023. The top 10 tags with the average value by calculating the trend of the history of tags for each year were retrieved. Number in “()” is the value of Atag.
| Year | New tags (Order of Atag) Ref. 1 |
|---|---|
| 2008 | |
| 2009 | google-apps-script(3550.5),google-sheets(1695.8),google-forms(146.1),google-docs(118.1),,,,,, |
| 2010 | javascript(888.4),google-sheets-api(128.3),google-sheets-formula(98.5),triggers(92.4),google-calendar-api(58.4),google-apps(57.1),json(55.4),spreadsheet(47.2),email(42.9),google-api(38.6) |
| 2011 | html(154.2),google-drive-api(153.3),gmail(84.4),web-applications(79.1),forms(31.2),jdbc(14.5),mysql(13.2),oauth(10.8),performance(10.3),google-apps-marketplace(9.9) |
| 2012 | arrays(106.3),urlfetch(45.8),google-workspace(37.5),gmail-api(32.6),jquery(30.8),api(29.1),google-apps-script-addon(27.7),excel(26.4),google-visualization(25.6),date(23.8) |
| 2013 | if-statement(21.6),loops(21),google-admin-sdk(14.8),filter(11.6),firebase(10.7),copy-paste(9.4),node.js(9.1),android(9),replace(8.3),ide(7.4) |
| 2014 | google-cloud-platform(38.8),google-apps-script-api(19.9),webhooks(7.7),youtube-data-api(7.1),telegram(5.8),duplicates(5.7),service-accounts(5.1),modal-dialog(4.3),google-directory-api(3.7),macro-recorder(3.4) |
| 2015 | google-slides(40),google-slides-api(25.3),google-classroom(12.8),v8(9.3),drive(8.1),get(4.9),exception(4.8),http-status-code-403(4.7),materialize(4.4),syntax-error(4.1) |
| 2016 | google-form-quiz(9.8),conditional-formatting(9.6),slack(6.9),slack-api(6.5),firebase-realtime-database(5.8),excel-formula(3.5),prompt(3.3),google-signin(3),hangouts-api(2.8),google-appsheet(2.8) |
| 2017 | gmail-addons(72.5),google-app-maker(35.8),looker-studio(18.3),google-drive-shared-drive(17.6),telegram-bot(13.4),typescript(8.6),google-cloud-functions(5.7),reactjs(4.9),stackdriver(4.3),google-apis-explorer(4.2) |
| 2018 | google-sheets-macros(83.3),google-workspace-add-ons(33.8),gsuite-addons(22.5),clasp(16.3),google-people-api(7.2),google-cloud-firestore(6.5),yahoo-finance(4.4),http-status-code-400(4),http-status-code-401(3.8),google-cloud-stackdriver(3) |
| 2019 | dropdown(8.8),google-chat(8.6),postman(5.2),chatbot(4),bootstrap-4(4),figma-api(4),google-sheets-charts(3.5),mapping(3),dialogflow-es-fulfillment(3),graphql(3) |
| 2020 | cheerio(8.3),google-apps-script-runtime(8),flutter(5.8),google-ads-script(3.5),dart(3.3),stock(3),google-apps-script-project(3),vis.js(3),rowdeleting(3),shortcut(3) |
| 2021 | google-analytics-4(6),nlp(5),google-gsuite(4.5),whatsapp(3),coinmarketcap(3),sourceforge-appscript(3),bootstrap-5(2.7),instagram-graph-api(2.5),shopify-api(2.3),lock-service(2) |
| 2022 | openai-api(3.5),html-lists(3),http-status-code-422(2),global-scope(2),amazon-ses(2),import-csv(2),coding-efficiency(2),accessibility(2),dropdownbox(2),nested-for-loop(2) |
| 2023 | reply(6),flatmap(3),disable(3),gsheets(3),cell-formatting(2),py-appscript(2),xss(2),google-app-invites(2),copy-data(2),google-search-api(2) |
Summary
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From Fig. 1, it was found that the reduction of the total questions, answered questions, and solved questions from 2022 to 2023 is large. In 2023, the ratio of answered questions for the total questions was 63 %. This value was smaller than 85 % in 2020, 86 % in 2021, and 82 % in 2022. This indicates a large reduction of questions. On the other hand, the ratio of closed questions had not largely changed.
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From Fig. 2, it was found that the reduction of the questioners and answerers from 2022 to 2023 is large. But, when the distance between blue dots and yellow dots is seen, it indicates proportionality with year to the 2nd power. Namely, it indicates that the number of questioners for one answerer has increased proportionality with the year to the 2nd power.
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From Fig. 3, it was found that the number of tags has not largely changed.
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From Fig. 4, it was found that the number of questions for one answerer continued to be increased. Figures 1, 2, and 4 indicate that even when the number of questions is decreased, the number of answers is decreased more. This situation leads to an increase in the number of questions for one answerer.
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Figure 5 shows year vs. increase the rate of the number of Questions for
google-apps-script,javascript,python,go,node.js,php,ruby, andhtmltags. The slopes of each year in blue dots in Fig. 1 are calculated for various tags as Fig. 5. When the value is positive, it indicates that the number of questions is increased. When the value is negative, it indicates that the number of questions is reduced. From Fig. 5, it was found that the number of questions in each tag largely decreased in 2023 - 2024 with the same trend. It is considered that there is an origin for this trend. Here, please remember the appearance of the generative AI at the end of 2022. The generative AI can answer the questions related to the scripts. It is considered that generative AI might lead to a reduction in a number of questions in 2023 - 2024. -
From Table. 1, In 2023, in the current stage, it seems that
reply,flatmap,disabletags at 2023 have no explanation. Ref, Ref, Ref From this situation, it is considered that no tags with worthy of special mention are used at 2023.
From the above results, it can be said that the current Google Apps Script has still been useful for a lot of users. However, the number of questions for one answerer is increased proportionally to the square of the year. Furthermore, the ratio of the solved questions for the total questions in 2023 is much lower than that of 2022 while it is considered that the affection of COVID‑19 is small. So, in order to improve these issues, it is considered that growing answerers will be one of the important factors for the selectivity of Google Apps Script by users. In the current stage, it is considered that generative AI will be also an important factor for users.
Although this is my feeling, it might have increased new users after 2023 from the trend of questions when I saw questions on Stackoverflow. I think that generative AI might lower the hurdle to entry of new users related to developing scripts including Google Apps Script. And, it is considered that this leads to an increase in more users. However, after generative AI has appeared, the trend obtained from the statistics on Stackoverflow might be required to be considered as different situations from before that.
References
Appendix
A1. Each total number retrieved from all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script” from 2008-01-01 to 2024-01-01
Table. A1. Each total number retrieved from all questions with the tag of “google-apps-script” from 2008-01-01 to 2024-01-01. The data used in this report was retrieved at 2024-01-03 at 15:26.
| Name | Number |
|---|---|
| Total questions | 53862 |
| Answered questions | 45642 |
| Solved questions | 24938 |
| Questioners | 34816 |
| Answerers | 16616 |
| Kind of Tags | 9301 |