dowco.com News - Hot Searches
By Mike Leeson
People around the world use search engines for millions of topics. What are they looking for? A number of major search engines provide a way to discover where people’s interests lie.
AOL Hot Searches (http://hotsearches.aol.com)
They have a “top searches of the day” section where you can see what the majority of people are looking for online. There is also a categories section so that you can find the popular search terms in your area of interest. Under Movies: “Superman”, “Man from la Mancha” and “Blair witch” are all popular searches. Under Games: Checkers is still a more popular search than Poker.
YAHOO! Buzz (http://buzz.yahoo.com)
The first of the Search Engine popularity sites, it was started in 2000. With it’s own Blog called the Buzz Log (what the world is searching for), they do a good job of putting the most popular search terms into some context. The paragraph format is easier to read in many ways than the lists that dominate similar sites. They have the Most Popular list off to the side and you can see the terms that have gained from the day before. There are links to specifically targeted Buzz sites, such as the Canada Buzz, and the Kids Buzz.
Google Zeitgeist (http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html)
This is where Google tells you the most popular searches are on the most popular search engine. It is full of lists for people, places and terms that people are looking for. The default tells you what has been of the greatest interest in the past week, but you can go back as far as 2001 to see what has been most sought after on Google by weekly, monthly or yearly time increments. If you wonder what was most viewed in June 2001? A quick look tells us it was Angelina Jolie. There are also regional options, where Canada had Halloween as the biggest search of October 2006.
Google Trends (http://google.com/trends)
Google allows you to use this tool to compare the popularity of various searches over time. You can see comparative popularity of various terms and searches, or you can see what regions are more interested in one subject or another. This is a great analytical tool for webmasters who need information on what people are looking for, and what approach might gather the most people.
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