Mountain View, California-based Internet search leader Google has added new features to its Google Trends  search query analysis tool which now provides expanded insight into the relative popularity of searches over time and across geographic areas, as well as a way to save that information, the company announced Tuesday. Last year Google launched a similar service focusing on the most popular searches on any one particular day, with its Hot Trends utility that shows the 100 fastest-rising search queries conducted in the United States daily. Google Users May Export Trends Data To Spreadsheets Google Trends began in 2006 as a rudimentary tool for people to learn what searchers the world over were seeking using Google's leading search engine site, however until the updates announced Tuesday the graphs shown on the Web-based application lacked any numerical gauge for comparing the popularity of various search terms. Google has added numbers representing the average search traffic for those search terms popular enough to track, with data scaled using either a fixed or relative method, according to Heej Hwang of the Google Trends team, who announced the upgrades on the company blog Tuesday. Using the new Google Trends features, which include the ability to export comma separated value (CSV) spreadsheet files and to download them for offline analysis, requires having and being logged into a free Google account. Scaled, Not Exact Numbers Still Likely To Provide New Insight Fixed method scaling ties Google Trends search term data to the average Web traffic for a particular term since a certain fixed date, allowing comparisons over time dating back to January 2004, the earliest date that Google has made information available for with the service. Fixed scaling information is not viewable within the Google Trends Web site, but has been made available when exporting to a CSV file. Fixed scaling could be used to compare, for example, how the popularity of searches for the term "cloud computing" has changed between January 2004 and October 2006. Each graph on Google Trends contains average search volume data that has been set to 1.00 for the selected time period being examined. Relative data scaling is the default method now used by the Google Trends service, and reveals how a search term has changed in popularity since the earliest 2004 data, or over only the past 30 days or year. Up to five search terms may be compared at once with Google Trends by separating each with a comma, and according to Hwang, "they'll all be scaled relative to the first term you've entered," however this can be changed using menus options. Hwang noted that although it does not "refer to exact search-volume figures," the Google Trends update offers "practical uses," such as the ability to "explore the popularity and seasonality of your products," due to the addition of numerical data. Some industry analysts who have questioned the service's usefulness to Web marketers in the past had hoped that Google would eventually add search figures showing exactly how often each search term is sough out on Google's search engine, and although the changes announced Tuesday have undoubtedly added to Google Trends' feature list, many are likely to be left wanting more underlying numerical data. Google Trends Search Term Tool Adds Relative Scales And Data Exporting Using Internet Protocol (IP) address information from its vast data center server logs, Google Trends can estimate search term popularity by various cities, nations and languages, however Google said that it does not reveal exact search queries. One industry analyst, writing Monday on the online discussion forums operated by WebmasterWorld, a community of webmasters and search engine marketing (SEM) professionals founded by chief executive Brett Tabke, saw the changes made at Google Trends as a welcome move by Google. "There is some solid news here - the ability to export a CSV file with a lot of data, even if it is scaled," said the member, using the handle "tedster." Related Links:
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