# Seen Google Trends? (new to me) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 24, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035 "2006-05-24T15:46:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/1 "2006-05-24T15:46:10Z")
This google site allows you to track the “trends” of certain search topics. [http://www.google.com/trends?q=cecil%2C+adams%2C+straight%2C+dope&ctab=0&geo=US&date=all](http://www.google.com/trends?q=cecil%2C+adams%2C+straight%2C+dope&ctab=0&geo=US&date=all) Pretty cool. LIke googlefight, but better. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/2 "2006-05-24T16:32:07Z")
I thought it was cool, but I’m not really sure I trust the data. For example, I fed it [Mythbusters](http://www.google.com/trends?q=mythbusters&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all), and (if I’m reading it right), it seems that Norway and Australia are each interested in the show more than Canada and the U.S. combined. :dubious: [Google Labs](http://labs.google.com/) shows off all the cool stuff Google has. My favourite thing (not that I get the chance to use it much) is [Google Sets](http://labs.google.com/sets). Give it a few programming language names, a few colours, some names of action figures, etc., and it’ll give you a big list of the same. I find it useful for when you can remember everything about something but that something itself. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/3 "2006-05-24T19:12:40Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > My favourite thing (not that I get the chance to use it much) is [Google Sets](http://labs.google.com/sets). Give it a few programming language names, a few colours, some names of action figures, etc., and it’ll give you a big list of the same. I find it useful for when you can remember everything about something but that something itself. 🙂 I gave Google Sets the names of a few Magic: The Gathering cards, and it blanked out entirely. That should have been an EASY one, given that Magic cards are a precise and well defined finite set. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/4 "2006-05-24T21:04:37Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I gave Google Sets the names of a few Magic: The Gathering cards, and it blanked out entirely. That should have been an EASY one, given that Magic cards are a precise and well defined finite set. Wow. Before reading this post, I went and did _exactly the same thing_. It didn’t work for me, either. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/5 "2006-05-24T23:02:33Z")
I like the public option of the Notebooks feature. Very cool to see what others are snipping. Not to mention said snipping in itself. Thanks for the Labs link! ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/6 "2006-05-24T23:24:59Z")
Neat. I put “sex” into Google trends, and the top city was Cairo. Horny bastards. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/7 "2006-05-25T14:15:51Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > I thought it was cool, but I’m not really sure I trust the data. For example, I fed it [Mythbusters](http://www.google.com/trends?q=mythbusters&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all), and (if I’m reading it right), it seems that Norway and Australia are each interested in the show more than Canada and the U.S. combined. It’s normalized to the total number of search in each country. That is, it’s expressed as a percentage of all searches coming from that country. Mythbusters is [showing in Norway](http://www.discoverychannel.no/_listings/index.shtml), and t’s not inconceivable that a larger percentage of Norwegians are interested in Mythbusters than Americans. By the way, it looks like if you type several keywords it’s treated as an AND (like a regular google search), but if you separate them with commas, it shows the trends for each set. Example: [George Bush, John Kerry](http://google.com/trends?q=George+Bush%2C+John+Kerry&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/8 "2006-05-25T15:52:16Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > I thought it was cool, but I’m not really sure I trust the data. For example, I fed it [Mythbusters](http://www.google.com/trends?q=mythbusters&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all), and (if I’m reading it right), it seems that Norway and Australia are each interested in the show more than Canada and the U.S. combined. :dubious: [We have Snopes](http://www.google.com/trends?q=mythbusters%2C+snopes&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all). ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/9 "2006-05-25T17:10:08Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > It’s normalized to the total number of search in each country. I knew that. 'Cause I [RTFM](http://google.com/trends/about.html#4). :smack: :o Unmentioned on the Labs page is the [Google Zeitgeist](http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html), which is very interesting. I thought they only had a year-end thing, but it seems they update it monthly and weekly too. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/10 "2006-05-25T18:36:25Z")
The top three cities in searches for “Satan” are all in Turkey. “Passion of the Christ” seems to be _way_ popular in the Phillippines. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seen-google-trends-new-to-me/358035/11 "2006-05-26T13:54:43Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > “Passion of the Christ” seems to be _way_ popular in the Phillippines. [god, devil](http://www.google.com/trends?q=god%2C+devil&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all) Hmmm…