Website Design and SEO Blog by Malcom Chakery

No matter what side of the business industry you are a part of, whether it is product development, marketing, web design, etc…you know how important it is to keep up with the latest trends of your trade. You may do this through frequent watching of the news, following business analysis leaders on Twitter, reading assorted magazines and, most likely, reading your company’s data reports. All of these practices help you stay up on the latest and greatest in your industry’s trends.

Now, to make keeping up with industry trends even easier, you can use a great new tool from Google. This tool, called Google Correlate was released just last week  and allows you to upload your own data series and see a list of search terms whose popularity corresponds with what is really happening in the world in relation to the information that you provided.

For instance, when Google use this tool to compare the term “CDC Influenza rate” they found that the number of times people search the web for information on influenza was a near match for the number of people who have/had this ailment. The test period was from 2006 to 2010 and when the graphs were laid one on top of the other, the results virtually imposed on each other.

Google Correlate also allows you to enter in a search term or long tail phrase and find out what other terms were searched for during the same period or perhaps you would like to search by state (i.e. snowfall in Washington, Wyoming and Maryland). Keep in mind, that this Google tool follows the privacy control requirements. In fact, they rely on the anonymity of its users and the searches they make in order to make this data (and any other information) available.

So, if you are looking for a new way to check what is going on in your industry, take advantage of this great Google tool. Remember, knowledge is power; what you do with that knowledge is up to you.

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