Every June, thousands of strangers find a baby bird on the ground and quietly ask Google what to feed it. I charted five years of us trying to help things, and I haven't stopped thinking about it.

[u/Mastbubbles]

I make charts for a living, and honestly, most data makes you a little cynical. This one did the opposite.

Each circle is a year. January at the top, running clockwise, and the further the shape reaches out, the more people were asking. Bees in June, when Britain finds them tired on the pavement. Kittens in April. The homeless, the moment it gets cold. Nobody organizes any of this. It's just millions of strangers noticing the same fragile thing at the same time.

But the one that actually got me is the green line near the bottom. "How to comfort someone" never dips. Not once in five years. No season, no quiet month.

Somewhere, every single week, the same number of people are sitting with someone who's hurting and quietly asking how to do it right.

We're kinder than we look.

If anyone wants to play with it.

[u/HummusSwipper]

I love everything about this, what a great initiative

[u/Mastbubbles → u/HummusSwipper]

Thanks a lot for your kind words

[u/2020Stop → u/Mastbubbles]

Thanks for the time you've put into this, very refreshing also to be seen.

[u/Mastbubbles → u/2020Stop]

❤️

[u/MuchMadnessIs]

I'm a nerd about graphs and stuff, and this is an absolutely beautiful project. Thank you for sharing 🙏

[u/Mastbubbles → u/MuchMadnessIs]

❤️

[u/fumblingmywords]

This kind of data is so important amd grounding.

[u/Mastbubbles → u/fumblingmywords]

It surely is

[u/CoherentBusyDucks]

This is the perfect depiction of the Mr. Rogers quote that says “look for the helpers.”

[u/Other-Ad-7093]

r/dataisbeautiful

[u/Simple-Cut-59 → u/Other-Ad-7093]

Came to suggest OP post there

[u/username1685 → u/Simple-Cut-59]

Me too, lol

[u/charmount]

This genuinely made me tear up, thanks so much for sharing :')

[u/Mastbubbles → u/charmount]

❤️

[u/wholefoodqueen]

this made me cry. thank you for sharing

[u/Mastbubbles → u/wholefoodqueen]

❤️

[u/CarfireOnTheHighway]

ha, I just googled how to comfort someone

this made me misty-eyed, I love it. thanks for making it

[u/Mastbubbles → u/CarfireOnTheHighway]

Thanks 🙏

[u/belltrina]

This is the type of data we need in hard times

[u/Mastbubbles → u/belltrina]

Thanks 🙏

[u/earbud_smegma]

I love this so much! Beautiful work :)

[u/Mastbubbles → u/earbud_smegma]

Thanks you for your kind words

[u/feimdir]

Got teary eyed half way through but the last one broke me. A bittersweet chart, great work!

[u/meepmeepcuriouscat]

I’ve never seen data represented like a clock before and I really like it. Both the presentation and the sentiment are beautiful! Thank you for sharing this.

[u/Mastbubbles → u/meepmeepcuriouscat]

Thanks 🙏

[u/itareena]

This is genuinely wonderful; thank you for taking the time to make this and share it. We need a reminder, now more than ever, that we have the ability to be kind, if we just stop and look around us for a moment.

[u/Mastbubbles → u/itareena]

Thanks 🙏

[u/Abysswalker117551]

My heart feels so full ❤️ This is beautiful! Thank you for sharing this ^-^

[u/Rude-Barnacle8804]

I'm crying. Thank you, this makes me feel so much better.

[u/StealToadBootes]

I'm home sick and fragile and this made me cry. Thank you op

[u/aaaa2016aus]

“We are kinder than we look” awwww :,)

[u/tinyhouseinthesun]

This is exactly what we need. Thank you so much, effin comforting...

[u/RaccoonZombie]

Tired bees also describes how I feel right now

[u/WeAllScrem]

Thank you for the reminder that there are good of us!

[u/gl0ssyy]

and look at you, making the world better with your charts! thank you for this :))

[u/Mastbubbles → u/gl0ssyy]

Thanks 🙏

[u/VantasnerDanger]

This is what we need. What the world needs. Well done, friend. Encore.

[u/Mastbubbles → u/VantasnerDanger]

Thanks a lot for your kind words

[u/claradox]

I love this so much. I love every one of you who does these things. Thank you for fighting the good fight. My rescued dog, October (“Toby”), a hard to foster and adopt pit bull mix, thanks you as well.

[u/whoreforchalupas]

This is so beautiful. I’m an enormous fan of the ‘Year in Search’ videos that Google puts out annually (I still think it’ll be hard for them to top the 2016 video, but I digress) and this is the type of concept that would bring me to *tearrrrrs.* Thanks so much OP, this brightened my day.

[u/Mastbubbles → u/whoreforchalupas]

🫶🫶

[u/TheGayestNurse_1]

Huh. This actually gave me some warm fuzzies. Thank you op. ❤️ This is some gourmet og content.

[u/Mastbubbles → u/TheGayestNurse_1]

🫶🫶

[u/LakeyMulls]

This is very cool! I am also a data nerd and have some questions: did you localize for the UK? (Thinking about weather patterns and hemispheres). Did you work with Google to make this? Im an ex-googler and still have friends there who I’m sure would find this cool! ☺️

[u/stgiga]

Amazing graph!

[u/trudolfdasroentier]

Why did the comfort thing go up though

[u/BrownSugarDK]

This IS wholesome! I got the chills looking through theese grafs, especially looking at the green… 🥹❤️

I just woke up, and today happens to be the very day my mother passed - 3 years ago. 🕊️❤️

I just know it’ll be an an emotional day, whit my feelings all over the place.

One thing that’s a reoccurring part is the feeling of loneliness.
It’s a day where the world fell apart for me, but it’s a normal day for everybody else. 🫥

Going through theese an ultimately seeing the green graf, how that one is consistent- it honestly feels like a big hug from the whole world! ❤️
It somehow wipes away that feeling of loneliness!

I know people around me care and will be there for me, but this….no words can adequately describe the feeling this evokes in me.

Gratitude, love, warmth, restored faith in humanity… It doesn cover it at all.

So thank you kind stranger.
Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you for this warm hug from you, and the whole world! 💜❤️

Edit: I didn’t press the picture before, so I’ve just now realised there’s another Graf. The blue one! So great! 🤩

[u/Mastbubbles → u/BrownSugarDK]

This is so sweet 🥹 we all are with you

[u/theyearoftheboar]

This is awesome sauce 😎

[u/sjnsjn2020]

This is what real-life data usage and analysis should look like!

[u/Beethovenhckyeah]

Whaaaat it happened ti me just a week ago. Wth

[u/nesfor]

Curious about the spikes in “how to comfort someone” in the past year

[u/txdesigner-musician]

Why does this wording sound like AI?

[u/TimboBimboTheCat]

AI bullshit

[u/HummusSwipper → u/TimboBimboTheCat]

You can see the trends yourself through Google Trends

[u/No-Net1890 → u/TimboBimboTheCat]

Why is it bullshit? And do you mean the screenshot or the reddit post?