The world’s top Web search company unveils a service to track the fastest-rising search queries.
California — The art of trend-spotting is set to take a more scientific turn as Google Inc. has introduced a new “Hot Trends” feature on its Google Trends page. Hot Trends is Google’s newest tool for users who want to keep their finger on the pulse of what the world is searching for, Google said in the statement.
Google Hot Trends combines elements of Zeitgeist and Trends — two existing Google products that give a glimpse into Web search habits, but only in retrospect based on weeks-old data.
Hot Trends, which is updated several times each day, using data from millions of Google Web searches conducted up to an hour before each update and lists the 100 fastest rising searched queries on Google USA and highlights search terms that have suddenly become the most popular among the rest, the company said.
Because of this new feature, Google said it will discontinue producing the weekly Google Zeitgeist, a manually compiled list of popular searches.
Hot Trends provides a snapshot of what is on the public’s collective mind by allowing users to view the fastest-rising searches for different points of time, said Amit Patel, a Hot Trends software engineer for Google.
What’s hot and what’s not will be obvious to the masses in ways pioneering social philosophers could never have imagined. “There are events going on all the time that most of us are not aware of happening,” said Mr. Patel.
"For example, the less obvious searches include one for "motion to recommit," a phrase that emerged during a congressional debate, and "I who have nothing,"the title of a song sung by a contestant on TV’s American Idol. And the associated web search results reveal this was originally a song made popular by Shirley Bassey in 1963. Mystery solved," Google said.
Google sees heavy searches are made on the eve of college entrance examinations which appear to come from high school students doing last-minute preparations.
By focusing on search terms growing in popularity, Hot Trends eliminates other terms that might be more popular overall, such as “weather,” but that does not reflect current trends. Requests for pornography, popular websites like MySpace.com and some celebrities will not be included.
Google said results for each Hot Trends report will include information from the associated Google News, blog searches and Google Web search results, putting the information in context for users.
In addition to seeing the latest results, users can also choose a date in the past to see what the top Hot Trends were for that day. Besides being able to see the most popular searches in the certain countries and cities, users will be able to view the top searches in certain “sub-regions,” such as states within the U.S.