Google dons its Trends report with daily "Hot" topics

Google Inc. on Monday donned its Google Trends report with a new feature, dubbed “Hot Trends”, that lets users see a list of the current top 100 fastest-rising Google search queries in the United States, an effort by the Internet search giant to give a snapshot of what Internet users are searching for on Google today.

Unveiled late Monday, the upgrade comes as part of “Google Trends", a Web site released last year that can chart and compare the popularity of search terms over time. The new service provides a list of the search terms, refreshed several times a day, the company said in an e-mailed statement. Users will also be able to see what the top searches were on a specific day.

"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.

Instead of showing the most popular searches overall, which would always be generic terms like "weather", pornography and the popular Web sites like MySpace.com or prominent celebrities that consistently generate lots of searches, Hot Trends highlights searches that have suddenly gained popularity.

Results for each Hot Trends report will include links from the associated Google News, blog searches and Google Web search results containing the search terms.

"For example, the No. 2 Hot Trends result on Tuesday, May 15, was a cryptic phrase: "I who have nothing." The associated news articles and blog results showed that this is in fact the title of a song that was performed on American Idol that night. And the associated Web search results reveal this was originally a song made popular by Shirley Bassey in 1963. Mystery solved," Google said.

The Hot search also displays related searches, a search volume graph, and the top cities.

Besides Hot Trends, Google is adding some more features to its Google Trends tool. In addition to making users enable to see the most popular searches in certain countries and cities, Google will allow users to view the top searches within the sub-regions of 79 countries.

Because of this new feature, Google said it will discontinue producing the manually compiled weekly list of the hottest search terms called the Google Zeitgeist. However, the Mountain View, California-based search giant said it will still produce a year-end Zeitgeist for users.

Google Inc.’s ease to use, simplicity of design and massive database listings have made it the numero uno search engine in the world. The Web search leader is now extending its design magnificence in new directions by making the search services more comprehensive.

This year on May 16, the world’s top online search provider, combed its different Web search services into one "Universal Search" service that presents Web sites, news, video and other results on one easy-to-use page. It also announced the addition of a Universal Navigation Bar at the top of Google search and other pages, which will allow users to quickly get to other Google properties. For example, Gmail users can jump instantly to search, calendar, documents, and other services.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin have to be credited for co-finding this giant internet search and advertisement engine, Google, which has helped the masses to be in touch with every sphere of life as it is said, 'Everything is now just a click away and within the reach of everybody.'

Google, the world's largest provider of Web search which handles more U.S. queries than any other search engine, faces competition from Yahoo Inc., Microsoft's Live Search and IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask.com service.

Yahoo!, started by two Stanford graduates– Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1994, is the Sunnyvale, California-based largest and most comprehensive information portal on the Web. The company was incorporated in 1995.

Yahoo! has its own service called Yahoo Buzz that shows most-searched-for subjects and the biggest movers.

Redmond based Microsoft last year launched its search engine, Live Search, which is crafted to compete with offerings from rival online powerhouses Google and Yahoo, both of them far exceed Microsoft’s share of the Internet search engine market.

Shares of Google rose 28 cents to $470.60 on Monday in NASDAQ Stock Market trading. They have gained 2.2 percent this year.