Google Trends have us a glimpse of popular search terms across the world. Google has now launched Google Insights for Search – which is essentially ‘Google Trends on steroids’, as one analyst put it. I have been toying around with it and for marketers, media planners and online agencies it is like a ringside view of what the world is searching. But more than a mere list of keywords, this allows the user to dice the data in a myriad ways – across regions, sub regions, search terms etc.
It is a great tool for monitoring brands, broad search terms, specific terms within a category, regional trends etc. For example, for the key word ‘laptop’ the highest interest is in Haryana, followed by UP and Karnataka. For the search term ICICI, regional interest is highest in Bihar! Orkut beats the pants of Facebook in terms of popularity. The term iPhone is most popular in Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra. But understandably Nokia is way ahead (Index of 78 vs 17). If you are logged into your Gmail account, the data that shows up is wider. And a marketer can use it very creatively. For example, it is interesting to see that New Zealand features in the Top 5 markets for the term ‘Travel to India’. The popular search terms under the Shopping category include: mobile store, filehippo, indiaplaza and so son.
All this may not be hugely scientific for a media planner but it gives a flavour of trends in a particular category. Guaranteed to keep you addicted for hours on end. And improve Google’s stature, while making the user feel empowered.
No wonder Google is a generic term for search.
