I have been playing with the Google trends tool for quite a while now, and it’s definitely addictive. If you are not aware of what Google trend tool is, then here is a quick snapshot about it…

Google trends search term tool allows marketers to know the popular searched terms that were used since the beginning of 2004 till now. You can enter up to five search topics/terms to see how frequently these topics/terms have been searched on Google.

There are two interesting sections in Google trends. First is Google hot trends, which display top 100 searches of the past hour. Hot trends do not show the overall popular searches, but they show only those searches that gain sudden popularity.

The second interesting thing is Google trends for websites. They give the traffic and geographic pattern of any website, provided the website has got enough traffic to appear on the graph.

I ran a quick search to identify which category/brand/keyword was hot and which was not in an online retail segment for the year 2007 in the United States.

Here are few explorations I carried out in Google trends for searches

Ipod Vs Zune:

Zune doesn’t stand a chance Vs Ipod

Desktops vs Laptops/Notebooks:

Desktops and laptops are almost at par with each other in popularity though desktops take a slight edge over the other. Notebook is definitely the least hot.

Cars vs Bikes:

Cars are more popular than bikes.

Computer hardware vs Computer software:

Computer software has more demand in the online market than computer hardware.

I personally feel that it is a great tool for internet marketers, web store owners and other likeminded professionals to use for research. But one cannot solely depend on this tool to identify the market trend.

Before merchandising any product/category in your website, you can run a quick search in Google trends to see how hot the category/product is in the online market over a specific time period.

Ok, now let’s do some fun search from 2004 to till date.

Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Will Smith

As far as Hollywood actors are concerned Brad Pitt grabs the first place. Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp take the same place. Will smith is the less popular one amongst these stars.

Warren Buffet, Google, God, Bill Gates:

Bill Gates is more popular than Warren Buffet. God is more popular than Bill Gates. Google is even more popular than God. That’s blasphemy!

SEO, PPC:

PPC is more popular than SEO in United States.

Social Media, Blogs:

Blogs enjoy more popularity than social media.

Water, beer, wine, vodka, rum:

People in United States like water more than beer, wine, vodka and rum.