Uh, the number of transactions is just about the best simple indicator there is of popularity. Can you think of anything better (and reasonably simple)?
There is no simple and reliable indicator of Bitcoin activity. The simplest indicators can be very variable (eg. spamming the network with transacitions). Indirect indicators, like the number of merchants using Bitcoin are better. And looking at these indicators, it is very clear that Bitcoin activity is dramatically increasing. For example BitPay recently announced 10,000 merchants using their bitcoin payment processing platform (it took them more time to go from 0 to 1,000 merchants than from 1,000 to 10,000!).
This Techcrunch article was written by someone who did bad research and can't even draw correct conclusions from the graph :-/
I linked to graphs of two better indicators. Did you read my comment past the first sentence?
- Number of transactions exclusive of very low quantity transactions, approximated by excluding very high volume transactors.
- Overall value of transactions, converted to a more stable currency, in this case USD.
Both of these indicate increased usage approximating tracking the increase in bitcoin's money supply.