Still with Matt Cutts as he dissect some fun with Trends.
This is the first time I had taken a closer look at Google Trends. It is an interesting tool graphs the search volume and news volume for certain keywords.
The search volume graph “compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time”
The news volume graph “shows you the number of times your topic appeared in Google News stories“.
Even more interesting is “when Google Trends detects a spike in the volume of news stories for a particular term, it labels the graph and displays the headline of an automatically selected Google News story written near the time of that spike” (Similar function is also found in Google Finance)
Below the search and news volume graphs, Google Trends displays the top cities, regions, and languages for the first term you entered.
This post is a little late as an introduction to Google Trends as many people had done some interesting trending for blog design, playstation 3 vs xbox360, and many more insights.
I gave it a try with “china business” a term that I have particular interest in.
The chart isn’t that informative but the Top Cities is revealing.
I’m from Singapore and in Shanghai.
(text in italics from About Google Trends)
A few quick notes as I hunt around for analytic related insights on the blogosphere. First off, Matt Cutts (of Google search) has some thoughts on Alexa data.
Alexa, if you are not familar, is a service by Amazon that tracks traffic ranking. The fact that the service is provided by such a high profile company as Amazon is often cited as the legitimacy and authoritativeness of the traffic ranking.
Particularly in China. Websites traffic are often presented using Alexa data. A friend that does due diligence for sites acquisation in China often lament at the lack of clarity in web statistics.
Can one trust Alexa data?
Certainly not by people in the know apparently. You can find them in forum and blog. The way to manipulate the data is so simple, it is unimaginable.
Of course investors are not so naive as to just trust Alexa data. But what other independent web traffic ranking alternatives are there?
When I first got my Google Analytics account, the amount of information in there simply blew me away. It took me a while to figure out the features and how I can use them to gain insight into how my websites are performing.
While doing that, it occurs to me that I should share I’d learn. At the same time I would be able to learn from feedback and comments. Commiting to a site also helps me to continuously learn, stay focused and dig for more information.
This is how Analytic Insight was born.
Analytic Insight talks about web analytics. For the start it will covers tips with Google Analytics. Further down the road, the plan is expand the scope to cover topics related to web analytics and possibily statistical analytic techniques as well.
In terms of editorial schedule, short commentaries will apear as and when while longer articles will appear a week.
Thank you for visiting. I hope you will find the information useful.
About this Site
For more background on how Analytic Insight started, read this post.
Analytic Insight covers topics in web analytics. You will find
- tips on how to use web analytics to gain insight into how you site is performing.
- technologies and theories behind web analytics
- information and news on the web analytics business space
Editorial schedule
As much time is require to research the content, and the author is working on this in a part-time basis, the planned schedule for longer article is one to two times a week.
Shorter commentaries will apear as and when available.
About the Author
The author, Ken, is currently running his company in Shanghai China. In his free time he experiments with how to making revenue online.
Ken always has a keen interest in web analytics. His previous job with a major online media company, as well as his engineering and business training provided excellent foundation to understand both the technical and business aspect of web analytics.
Please feel free to comment or get in contact.
Thank you for visiting. I hope you find the information useful.
Analytic Insight is part of the 59ideas network started by Ken.
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