Well, if Googling yourself wasn’t already fun enough, you can now use Google’s powerful new Insights for Search tool to get a lot more information than you ever could before.
Irreverently called “Google Trends on steroids” by Andrew Chen, the tool allows you to type in a search term and then see relative search data based on time trends and region. The easiest thing to do is to go to the site, type in your business’ name, and then see how popular you are at home and abroad.
But there’s way more to this tool than voyeurism, which is why we’re so excited about it.
One cool feature of the software is its ability to track news releases (it’s a rather scattered implementation now, but I’m sure it’ll improve), allowing you to see how major events may have impacted the popularity of your site.
Another application is to supplement keyword research — while now it’s easy enough to get the raw numbers associated with a search term, getting a sense of its rising or falling popularity, and its geographic-weightedness, is a huge asset.
Isn’t it nice to know that “HR Software” is densely searched in Georgia?
Or that “marketing podcast” is a big hit in Germany and the Netherlands?
Already the web is filled with reports generated by the program, including regional popularity of social media sites as well as popularity of social media sites worldwide (and a great response from TechCrunch on their worldwide popularity).
Google’s accumulation of data is staggering, but it’s good to see them opening up ways to use this information for the public… well, I hesitate to say “good,” but for the public information, at least. And its help people like us do a better job of understanding what’s going on in the wild, wild web.