Combination Post - Lots of Different Ideas Pulled Together

 Hi All,

Today's blog post is about, well, everything.  Aka...its a mish-mosh of sites, ideas and links!!!!

It's so cold outside that my brain feels slow, addled and well, cold.  So, with that said, I'd like to talk about a few links that I've saved in my bookmark folder for just such an emergency - a day where I need to talk about a few interesting links...

From a Yahoo! Travel article back in December 2014, comes this article titled, 'What Every State in the U.S. Is Worst At (Including North Dakota at Tourism)'. 

Homework Helper from Refdesk.com - organized by grade and has an Ask the Expert Section as well as a Quick Reference/Research section, and a Tools For Research section.

Fact Monster - has sections as varies as Almanacs, World and News, US, People, Word Wise, Science, Math and Money, Sports, Cool Stuff, Games and Quizzes, Homework Center and more.

Google Trends - 'In 2014 we searched trillions of times. What does these searches say about us?' Click on this link for a review of the year 2014 in search via Google. This link shows various Google searches and trends...Users can view 'searches', 'people', 'athletes', 'consumer electronics', 'global news', 'Google Doodles of 2014', YouTube Videos and more.

Enjoy the links and the varied topics in the post!

Regards,
Stu

Online Trends - What's Hot and What's Hotter

Hi All,

We all like to be 'trendy' and 'in-the-loop', right?  Well, some of us at least....now there is a way to follow what's hot in fashion, entertainment, music, news and much, much more.

Google has a site called Google Trends - click here to visit the site - that enables users to follow cocktails, Colleges and Universities and People. Other areas to find popular trends include DJ's, Dog Breeds, Foods, Games, Quick Service Restaurants, Reality Shows and much more.

At the top of the page, users can narrow down their search by year by using the drop down dialog box.  Searches go back to 2004 and can be searched by month or by the whole year.

On the initial Google Trends page, users can find charts in categories like Business & Politics, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Nature & Science, Shopping & Fashion, Sports and Travel & Leisure.

Clicking on this link lets users explore Google Trends. Users can add their own topics and terms and then those phrases can be explored even further.  Comparisons can be compared by location and by time period as well.

If you haven't realized it, Google Trends is a great way to conduct original research for term papers, graduate research or just for 'seeing what is popular'.

And Google Trends is free!!!

Enjoy the charts, tables, and searches and the vast amount of data generated!

Regards,
Stu

Trends - What's Hot and What's Not

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