Google Trends is a tool from Google Labs that shows the most popularly searched terms from the beginning of 2004 to now.
Google Trends charts how often a particular search term is entered relative the total search volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. The horizontal axis of the main graph represents time (starting from some time in 2004), and the vertical is how often a term is searched for relative to the total number of searches, globally [1]. Below the main graph, popularity is broken down by region, city and language. It is possible to refine the main graph by region and time period.
Google Trends also allows the user to compare the volume of searches between two or more terms. An additional feature of Google Trends is in its ability to show news related to the search term overlaid on the chart showing how new events affect search popularity.
Interestingly, there are some search keywords that are quite seasonal, like summer camps, which strongly coincides with the end of the United States school year.[2] Another example is the increase of interest in skin cancer as the northern summer approaches.[3] However, the reason for seasonal variation is not always obvious. For example, searches for Mesopotamia peak at the end of September. [4]
There are also some search keywords that come up around a certain date each year. For example, searches for the Internal Revenue Service peak on April 15, the deadline for filing taxes in the United States.[5] Another example is Thanksgiving.[6]. Most searches also seem to have some anomaly before or after Christmas each year, even terms that one would not particularly associate with the season.
Originally, Google neglected updating Google Trends on a regular basis. In March 2007, internet bloggers noticed that Google had not added new data since November 2006, and Trends was updated within a week. Google did not update Trends from March until July 30, and only after it was blogged about, again.[1] Google now claims to be "updating the information provided by Google Trends daily; Hot Trends is updated hourly."
Google Hot Trends
Google Hot Trends is a fairly recent (since May 15, 2007) addition to Google Trends which displays the top 100 hot searches of the past hour. It provides a 24-hour search volume graph as well as blog, news and web search results for the terms. Hot Trends has a history feature for those wishing to browse past hot searches. Hot Trends can be installed as a iGoogle Gadget. Hot Trends is also available as an hourly Atom web feed.
Google Music Trends
Google Music Trends was an opt-in service that displayed the music most listened to by users of Google Talk, in the form of the 'Week's top songs'. Trends could also be filtered by Genre and Countries.
Google Music Trends was shut down on March 31, 2008.
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