Google Trends just got a little better thanks to a recent update made by the search engine giant. As explained by Search Engine Land, Trends now provides real-time data on search trends for YouTube, Google News, Google Images and Google Shopping.
Launched May 11, 2006, Google Trends is a free-to-use tool for pulling search data. It provides users with a list of the most popular searches while also allowing users to view historic search trends for keywords. Furthermore, it provides data on interest by region, showing which regions search for the keyword the most. There’s even a related topics section with related keyword searches.
Up until now, however, Google Trends has only provided data on searches made via Google Search. The recent update has expanded the tool’s data sources to include other sources as well.
By default, Google Trends will continue to pull search data from Google Search. However, you can pull data from YouTube, Google Images or Google News by making just two clicks. After performing a search on Google Trends, click the “Web Search” drop-down menu, after which you can select the data source. The data revealed in the following report will only come from that source.
So, what prompted the search giant to expand Trends’ data sources? In a blog post, Simon Rogers, Google News Lab data editor, said Google wants to create greater transparency regarding searches.
Of course, the new update will likely benefit business owners and advertisers the most. Business owners — especially those looking to promote their products or services online — can use data on search trends to optimize their advertising efforts. Using Google Trends, business owners can see whether relevant searches are going up or going down. If one of their products is receiving fewer searches, they can shift their resources to a different product.
