Yesterday Google unveiled a new addition to their Google Trends service. Google Trends shows the most popularly searched terms from the beginning of 2004 to now and charts a particular terms popularity throughout the different regions of the world. The new service is called Google Hot Trends and they hope this will share more insights about what is on its users’ minds on any given day. They will do this by showing a daily list of the 100 hottest topics on its Internet-leading search engine.
When you go to Google Trends you can find this right towards the bottom of the page:
One important note with these lists is that they will not include all of the top queries of the day because it will be edited to exclude pornography and other common type queries about the weather, popular Web sites like MySpace.com or even prominent celebrities.
So how much insight can this really give you into what people are searching for today? Let’s look at the current Top 10:
So according to Google the Hottest Term of the day is: what part of a graduate’s costume gave the cordon bleu cooking school its name? Even though there are no News Articles or Blog Articles pertaining to this:
Unless there was some big Cordon Bleu Cooking School story that I missed, I just find it hard to believe that more then one person is searching for that. #10 on the list, heroes season 2, makes much more sense. Season 1 just ended, they have rabid fans and they are looking for info about the new season. There are a ton of articles about it and even more blog posts.
So as with any service like this, just like Google’s Zeitgeist or the Yahoo! Buzz, take the data with a grain of salt. Don’t ever make any hard & fast decisions based on this type of data. Its best used as a rough guide or something to spark other ideas.
How can you benefit from this service as a marketer? One way would be to see what the most popular trends of the day are and if they match your topics, write blog posts or news articles about them. That way when someone clicks through your article could be there. We’ll see how that works out with this post….
Update: As expected this post showed up on the page within 10 minutes or so:
The phrase is being searched so many times today because of radio station trivia contests that are going on right now.
Great point Jim. Good follow-up article from Google Watch here.
Ya, number 10 and number 7 on this list are questions from WEEI’s daily trivia sections.
just in case you couldn’t find it…..
Le Cordon Bleu’s name traces back to a high honor bestowed on members of the Holy Spirit by King Henry III in the 1500s. The awarded medallion, called the Cross of the Holy Spirit, was suspended from a Blue Ribbon… the Cordon Bleu.
It’s “ribbon”
Crossword Puzzle Answer
I came her via a google search to find out what part of a graduate’s costume gave the cordon bleu cooking school it’s name, and you didn’t answer the question, dammit!
That blog title is blatant false advertising.
Thanks folks for your feedback and answers.
Becky – the blog title it is in the form of a question, I was curious about the answer too
I have never thought of this thing. Even I thought there would be more on this topic.Hell what a crap i have been right now. well i did not lose anything going through the blog.Informative one but as it is said so unsatifactory. Well will there be the answer in your upcoming blog or not?
welcome to