“Things I like” wasn’t meant to become a weekly segment… but as seeing I’m especially short on time this week (working with a client five hours ahead on UK time), let’s just pretend this was planned.
Without further ado, let’s jump into another thing I like.
Things I like #2: Google Trends
This is an incredibly simply and basic tool that I find myself using daily. And although I’m sure that everyone in the business is likely well versed with this page and might find today’s post worthless, this segment is about things I like… And I like this. So I’m writing about it.
The more and more I learn about Search Engine Optimization, the more I’ve become fascinated with what people actually search. I’ve become naturally intrigued by how people use search engines- from the keywords and strings they are using- to the topics themselves.
Enter: Google Trends. Appropriately titled, Google Trends is a repository of information on the most common search strings entered by a given date. Basically it collects all the common searches from a day and ranks them by volume. There are a few fun ways to use this:
- The daily top list which shows, believe it or not, the top searches for the day
- Daily top list by date. What were people looking for on specific days? How about your birthday? My birthday last year was the day after a great episode of the office, hence all the DunderMifflinInfinity searches…
- Trends over time. Enter in a search string of your own to see the volume of searches since the data started being collected (unfortunately, not that long ago). Here’s a good example: Candy. Searches for candy spike at the end of October, end of December, and in the middle of February. Wonder what that’s about?
- Trends by region. Google, with its omniscient prowess, also breaks down search results by geographic location, which provides for more fun. Example: Squash. Big in Connecticut and Massachusetts… surprise surprise.
- Comparing competitors. Enter in multiple names separated by commas and enjoy some simple market analysis.
- And lastly: News. Using the daily list, I find use the trends to find out what’s going on out there. Here’s an interesting thing I’ve picked up over last last six months: 3-4 of the top ten daily searches usually come from Today show topics. Thanks Matt Lauer. Also, almost daily one of the top search strings is about a sex scandal. Oh America, we’re so mature…
Anyway- with my obvious affinity for graphs you can see why I like this Google trends. Give it a go and let me know what you think- and let me know if you find anything funny. Like the way yesterday morning - five of the top twelve common search strings had to do with income tax forms or extensions…
