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Google Trends Tells You What’s Totally Hot Today

By Michael Calore May 22, 2007 Categories: Web Basics

Googletrends

The experimental search tool Google Trends got a feature boost today with the addition of a "Hot trends" list on the site’s main page.

"Trends" in search have always been determined using deep voodoo metrics. They are basically the search engine’s fastest movers, the buzzwords of the moment that people are typing into Google. People who watch Current.tv (there are a few of you out there, right?) will be familiar with the network’s "Google Zeitgeist" bumpers that displayed the company’s list of its 10 fastest-rising search terms.

Google Trends is listing the 10 hottest memes for the current day. You can also go back in time and see trends for a particular day, but right now the trends only go back one week to May 15, 2007.

I used to tabulate search trends for Lycos. These "Movers and Shakers" terms were inexorably tied to current events. So, whatever celebrity rumor or washed-up celebrity scandal was floating around on the web that week would be reflected by a spike in related search queries. Studying these trends gives you great insight to the obsessions of our culture…

Tags: search
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