Google Trends is Amazing

So today we launched Google Trends. Wow. I first played with it earlier this week (that is, I wasn't on the team and didn't know it was coming out) and I was utterly blown away with it. My first reaction was "very cool" and my second reaction was "this is extremely powerful!" [1]

In effect, Google Trends lets you see how search traffic for a given term has changed over time. Even better, you can compare up to five different search terms to see how the popularity of things have changed over time. I'm amazed that this kind of tool is now available to the general public (for free, no less!). Obviously condensing a high volume of data into a small graph has some lossage, but this is a hugely fascinating source of information nonetheless.

For instance, a company near and dear to my heart made a strategic decision several years ago about one of their products. Was it a good decision, or did it fracture their brand?

What about new websites as they replace old? How has Digg compared to Slashdot? What about some other popular websites/companies? (Yes, apparently more people search for myspace than for microsoft... who knew?)

How about current events -- when did Abu Ghraib enter the global consciousness, compared to Guantanamo? What about Osama versus Saddam?

How about next generation game consoles -- how often are people searching for them? XBOX 360 vs Playstation 3 vs Nintendo Revolution/Wii!

Open Source versus proprietary? How about MySQL vs Oracle vs Postgresql vs DB2? Apache vs IIS? HTML vs XML vs Java? JBoss vs Weblogic?

Obviously interpreting data is difficult. Turning facts into truths is hard. Also, users may not search like you expect, and name overlap (apple vs Apple) can lead to confusion, too. But the power of Google Trends is amazing, and it truly shines lights both into the behavior of people as well as the change in that behavior over time. Rock on, Trends Team!

[1] - I speak only as a happy user of Google Trends. I had nothing to do with its design, launch, implementation, etc etc. I just think it's very, very cool. Standard disclaimer - these opinions are mine alone and not the opinions of my employer. Don't construe them as anything except random monkey typings into a random monkey blog.