Google Trends is a service that launched in May 2006 that allows you to see how popular search terms have been over time on Google. You can also see how popular web sites are, along with related demographic information as estimated by Google. Google Hot Trends is a subsection of Google Trends launched in May 2007 that shows the “hottest” searches at Google on an hourly basis.

Google Flu Trends Is Under The Weather, Study Says

May 18, 2010 at 2:20pm ET by Matt McGee

Google can do a lot of things, but a new study says it can't estimate flu activity across the United States with a high degree of accuracy. A University of Washington study says Google Flu Trends is about 25% less accurate at estimating flu rates in the U.S. than the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) national flu monitoring programs. Dr. David Ortiz, who led the university study, says search activity isn't necessarily the best way to gauge the flu's spread. "Internet search behavior is likely different during anomalous seasons such as during 2003-4," explained Dr. Ortiz. "We hypothe [...]

Report: Some Google ‘Hot Topic’ Searches Return 90% Malicious Links

Apr 6, 2010 at 3:15pm ET by Matt McGee

A blog post from cloud security company Zscaler suggests that some Google searches recently returned results with 90% malicious links, and the spammers are using Google Trends to do it. The example used in the post is a search for [tri energy], a phrase that was the hottest search on Google Trends on Friday, April 2nd. On its first check, Zscaler says 90 of the top 100 results were malicious -- 86 of which sent users to a phony anti-virus page that tries to install malware. For its part, Google is well aware of the problem. "Utilizing popular search terms and events to lure users into v [...]

Can Google Tell Us What Men and Women Are REALLY Thinking?

Jan 19, 2010 at 6:56pm ET by Vanessa Fox

Last week, a post on the Predictably Irrational blog described the differences in what boyfriends and girlfriends were looking for their beloveds to do based on Google Suggest. Google Suggest can provide hours of fun. Just spend some time at Autocomplete Me or QuestionSuggestions. But can it provide useful audience analysis for understanding our customers, building products for them, and marketing to them? We'll take a look at that next, but first, let's see what Google has to say about men and women are really thinking. I should warn you, not all of these search queries are safe for work, but [...]

Google Ranks Real-Time Tweets Based On Followers?

Jan 13, 2010 at 9:14am ET by Barry Schwartz

The Technology Review magazine has an article named How Google Ranks Tweets. They interviewed Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow, who led development of Google's real-time search, on the topic. Amit explained that in the social context, the number of people following someone is similar to the number of links pointing to a page. We know Google ranks web pages on the number and quality of those links (amongst other factors). Amit explained it is not just about the number of Twitter followers, but also figuring out who the "reputed followers" are. Amit explained, "You earn reputation, and then y [...]

Take That, Twitter: Google Hot Trends Integrated Into Google Search

Sep 28, 2009 at 6:45pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Twitter and real time search continues to attract buzz, and Google's reacting by positioning its "Hot Trends" information in a place where more people will see it, within Google's regular search results. Starting around 3:45 Pacific Time today, those searching on topics that are spiking or "hot" in popularity should see a new Hot Trends OneBox near the bottom of the search results page and just above the related search area, similar to below: Here's another example: "The idea behind the [Hot Trends] OneBox is to not only provide you with search results as you'd want but al [...]

Google Launches “Google Internet Stats”

Sep 10, 2009 at 9:40am ET by Barry Schwartz

It appears Google has pulled together a bunch of statistics throughout the web and created a small landing page named Google Internet Stats on the Google UK front. The page explains that this service "brings together the latest industry facts and insights together in one place." Google collected this data from many third party vendors, on a wide range of topics. In fact, you can submit your data using this form. Here is a picture of the mobile technology internet stats from this tool: The categories of statistics include: - Consumer Trends -- Community -- Entertainment -- Infor [...]

Google Giving Stock Tips With Domestic Trends

Sep 4, 2009 at 9:29am ET by Barry Schwartz

The Google Blog announced a new trends project named within Google Finance named Google Domestic Trends. In short, Google tracks searches on Google.com and then groups those search volume metrics into industry sectors. Google will then plot the search volume by several industry sectors on a trends graph and allow you to then overall stocks and indices on top of those search volume trends. For example, I plotted Continental Airlines stock price on Google's domestic trends index for airline travel: Google thinks there may be some useful insight into search volume for economic forecas [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Finance | Google: Trends

Google Trends Features ASCII Art Of 9/11

Jan 6, 2009 at 12:51pm ET by Barry Schwartz

A reader tipped us off to how ASCII art of an airplane is showing up in the number two position at Google Trends. When we first looked ourselves, we thought the image was that of an airplane approaching a landing strip. But a reader suggests it represents a far more disturbing scene, that of an airplane crashing into New York's former World Trade Center towers on 9/11. The ASCII image is this ✈ ▌▌. Below, how it appeared on Google Trends: The "Hotness" level is "Volcanic," which is hottest level Google Hot Trends can see. The related searches include trends, google trends, be [...]

Google 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist; Fastest Rising Searches

Dec 3, 2008 at 8:29am ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

Google's official list of the most popular search activity for 2008, aka Zeitgeist, has yet to make its debut, but the search giant has been leaking out tasty tidbits of data to get us salivating for even more search data. The fastest-rising search terms of 2008 Obama Facebook Att iPhone YouTube Fox news Palin Beijing 2008 David Cook Surf the channel These queries have seen the most growth since 2007. It will be interesting to see which ones stick around for 2009, and compare scorecards at that point. Facebook, iPhone and YouTube are the most likely candidates, th [...]

Who’s Got The Flu? Google Flu Trends Reveal State-By-State Activity

Nov 11, 2008 at 4:44pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Wondering if it's just you or if others have the flu, too? Google's announced a new tool that tells you. Google Flu Trends allows you to see flu activity across the United States. How's Google doing this? Is it now indexing actual human beings, in the way it does web pages? Nah. Turns out that when you're sick with the flu, you search for that word and other flu-related topics. Google can tell which areas are seeing a spike in flu-related searching, and from that, trends can be plotted. Consider this chart that compares actual flu activity to searches for flu-related terms, ove [...]

Q&A With Google’s Insights For Search Senior Product Manager

Sep 12, 2008 at 3:20pm ET by Josh Dreller

In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today's in-depth look, "Q&A With Google's Insights for Search Senior Product Manager" and this week's free tips and tools. News from the search engines Google AdWords: Where are your clicks coming from? Finally! A geographic data report from AdWords. In lieu of being able to serve text ads via your own server (I hope someone is working on this somewhere) and being able to gather this [...]

Google Insights For Search Launches

Aug 6, 2008 at 12:00am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has launched Google Insights for Search, a tool that helps advertisers and marketers understand searcher behavior. The tool offers a comprehensive set of statistics based on search volume and patters. You can compare seasonal trends, geographic distributions, and category-specific searches, and you can group all these variables together to get extremely specific. In addition, Google allows you see "rising searches" overall or in a specific filter that you have set up. Overall, this seems to be a huge extension to Google Trends, Google Ad Planner, and the tools available within AdWor [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Trends

More Google Trends Manipulations

Jul 14, 2008 at 7:44am ET by Barry Schwartz

Another day, another Google Trends abuse. As spotted at Google Blogoscoped Forums, Google Trends on July 13th was showing "ǝlƃooƃ noʎ ʞɔnɟ" as the number one hot trend amongst blogs, news sites, and so on. I personally see it when I navigate back to July 13th in Google Trends. This comes right after the display of a swastika on Google Trends just last week. What is next? Postscript: TechCrunch reports even more continued Google Trends attacks. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Trends

Google Trends Showing A Swastika (卐)?

Jul 10, 2008 at 8:59am ET by Barry Schwartz

Dave Shaw notified me of a weird character being displayed as a "hot trend" on Google Trends this morning. It appears that Google is displaying a swastika as 卐. This appears to be some sort of Chinese character, but the swastika is well known for its usage in Nazi Germany and has been a very controversial symbol since. Here is a picture of Google Trends at the time I write this: When you view the trends result, you see there are only blog posts but zero news articles, which makes you wonder what is really going on here. Is this a form of search spam to trick Google Trends in showing [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Trends

Mr. Google, Tear Down This Google Trends Wall!

Jun 24, 2008 at 12:14pm ET by Danny Sullivan

About two seconds after Google Trends For Websites came out, people started noticing that one company's websites oddly had no data available -- Google's own. Google will tell you all about the traffic to competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft but gives away nothing about itself. The same is true for the newly-released Google Ad Planner tool. It's not right, despite Google's weak excuse of not wanting to provide "financial guidance" about itself via the tool. Google either needs to post its own information pronto or allow any company to opt out. The First Rule Of Google Trends [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Ad Planner | Google: Trends

Google Ad Planner Launches, Offers Site Demographic Profiles

Jun 24, 2008 at 10:45am ET by Danny Sullivan

Google has launched Google Ad Planner as an invite-only beta. It's designed to allow advertisers to identify sites with demographics they're interested in -- even sites that aren't part of Google's advertising network. The tool provides a greater depth of information about sites than Google Trends For Websites that came out last week. In fact, that's more a "light" version that Google told Search Engine Land was spun off from Google Ad Planner: Initially, we were going to launch only Google Ad Planner. However, when Google management looked at the product, they wanted to make s [...]

George Carlin’s Death Spikes Searches For His Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV

Jun 23, 2008 at 8:24am ET by Danny Sullivan

I was saddened to hear one of my favorite comedians, George Carlin, passed away Sunday. Clearly he touched many people. A quick look at Google Trends shows searches related to him have spiked up as well as for his famous "seven words you can't say on TV." Among the things people are seeking: george carlin seven words you can never say on tv george carlin 7 words george carlin site youtube.com As for those words you can't say on TV, they've long since passed as being taboo for television. On the internet, people will say anything, of course. So of those seven famous [...]

Google Trends Comes To Web Sites: Trends For Web Sites

Jun 20, 2008 at 1:19pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has launched a major addition to Google Trends named Trends for Web Sites. Trends for Web Sites extends Google Trends by enabling you to search for web site addresses, as opposed to just searching for trends by keyword. R.J. Pittman, Google's Director of Product Management, told me that by entering a domain name into Google Trends, Google will return traffic, search, and geographic visitation data for that site. Trends for Web Sites will show sites related to the domain name you entered. It will also show searches that are correlated to the domain name, and if you are logged into Go [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Trends

“iPhone” Fastest Growing Query On Google In 2007

Dec 4, 2007 at 8:14am ET by Greg Sterling

TechCrunch was watching NBC's Today show yesterday, where Google User Experience VP Marissa Mayer revealed the "fastest growing" search queries from 2007. Below is the list, as well as news about a webcast Google's having on top terms of the year. Here's the list: 1. iPhone 2. Webkinz 3. TMZ 4. Transformers 5. YouTube 6. Club Penguin 7. Myspace 8. Heroes 9. Facebook 10. Anna Nicole Smith Today at 4:30 Eastern, Mayer will reveal essentially the same information from the "Google Zeitgeist report," offering "a glimpse at what captivated the world over the past 12 months, based on the fastest [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Trends | Stats: Search Behavior

Google Trends Now Updated Hourly

Sep 24, 2007 at 3:46pm ET by Barry Schwartz

The Google Blog announced today that Google Trends is now updated every hour. In the past, it was just updated monthly with the latest statistics on searches. If you want to track the latest hot trends by hour, you can subscribe to the hourly Hot Trends Atom Feed or add a Google Gadget to your iGoogle home page. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Trends

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