Hi All,Let's talk tech and trends and things 'cool' today. I suspect you've all used Google to do a search on the web. That's all well and good - but did you know that the folks at Google have created a way to find out what terms are popular at a particular time and place?
Yep - its cool. It'll totally change the way you do research and that way you use Google.
Just click on this link and you'll visit the main Google Trends page.
Users can type in their own search or click on various links of 10 or so very popular searches.
Users who are interested in exploring more about the advanced features can click on this link entitled 'Google Insights For Search'. This is where users can compare search volume patters across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. Super cool for the geeky searcher in all of us. :)
Here is an example of what you'll find if you use Google Trends. I did a search for 'snow new york' and got back a chart that prety much looked like an EKG report you get at a doctors office. Specifically though it showed that there was an increase in these search terms (and a dramatic increase in these terms at that) during the months of December, January and February. This is pretty much what you would expect in New York during these months since there is more snow at this time of year. Hence you would expect there to be more people searching for these terms at this time of year. Click on this link for the chart.
Now, if you scroll down further on the result page, you can click on links under the category of Regions. Users can also click on a link at the top right on the page for 'All Regions' and 'All Years'. Interesting stuff. I wonder what would happen if you did a search for 'snow', 'New York', and 'blizzard' and then narrowed the search down by region?
So, the whole point of Google Trends is for users to be able to parse (aka break out and divide in ever smaller parts) data and then to actually use it in a practical way.
I would imagine that advertisers, marketers, PR and publicity professionals would find this an interesting tool - as would information professionals and folks who love to search for data.
Enjoy!
Stu
