Sue Waters

The great thing about subscribing to lots of people’s blogs is you find out the latest news on topics that interest you, often as the news is happening. Last night I read the Chris’s Crucial Thought post on Google Trends reveals world’s downfall.

What amazed me was yet again here was another Google product that I did not know about. Last week I bought Google.pedia – so I grab my book and check out what they said about Google Trends. Was really interesting reading.

Then I went to Google Trends and searched for the new Hot Trends information. Was absolutely stuck. Could not see the Hot Trends information (it was late and I must have been tired as it was right there in front of my face). But I did have fun googling information on Google Trends and Hot Trends.

Basically in simple terms Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time which is then graphed. Look at my results for search terms of e-learning, mobile learning and Web 2.0.

What I liked about Google Trends is it gives you an indication of changes in search terms with time. Have a look what happens when you enter the terms blog, wiki, podcast.

When you go to Google Trends below the search area you will see Hot Trends. This lists the top 100 search trends for the day and is updated several times daily. Probably a point to note is that not everyone is going to be happy as Hot Trends is currently based on USA searches (for those not happy lets just remember this is a new feature and it is in test phase). Also like any statistic you do need to examine the information closely because what you think it is reflecting may not be what it really is reflecting.

So had a good laugh this morning to note after having a sleep over night that Google Hot Trends is currently in number 26 position in their Hot Trends ranking. I assume it may be higher in its rankings tomorrow as more people talk about it. Also good news for Google Trends because as people talk about Hot Trends people become aware of Google Trends (as I did).

So does Google Trends reveal the World’s downfall – mmmmm – based on the fact that Hot Trends relates to USA searches? Well, we can not say it represents the World trends.

Thanks to Chris’s Crucial Thought for letting me know about this latest Trend.