A brand new service just introduced by Google offers some interesting insight into what the people of this earth are trying to find out about. Google Trends allow you to see search volumes and news volumes over time for a selection of search terms. One of the examples offered on the Google Trends main page shows the value. “Skiing versus Surfing” shows that surfing is a year-round sport, or perhaps the northern and southern hemispheres balance each other out. Skiing, by comparison appears to be heavily weighted to the northern summer with substantial peaks around the December/January period each year. Perhaps the difference is that it is possible to surf in either hemisphere all year round – waves aren’t seasonal, whereas snow is.

The analysis also shows where the searches are originating from and, perhaps predictably, Denver shows up as top city for skiing. Switch to a regional view, however, and we see that Ireland is a country full of skiers. Of course this doesn’t mean the best skiing is in Ireland, but it would certainly be a good place to sell skiing holiday packages.

Where I believe this tool becomes very valuable, then, is in market research. For example, if you wanted to sell rubber stamps (craft stamps) online, where should you concentrate your efforts, geographically speaking? A quick look at “rubber stamping trends” shows that the United States is a good place to start but that four other countries (including New Zealand at #2) are also high frequency. But what about thinking a bit more laterally?

Have a look at this trend which includes additional search terms that relate to rubber stamping. From this we can see that scrapbooking is way, way more popular and that Australia now takes on considerably more prominence. The lesson here is that your rubber stamps should be marketed in Australia as the perfect item for scrapbookers.

Beware however, in selecting your search terms. Here is a variation on the previous trend. Suddenly Malaysia is looking like a good market too!

This is a fun tool and very interesting to play with. As a New Zealander, I am particularly intrigued by the results of this trend! Then again if you reverse the search terms, things look different.